GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes bombed targets in the Gaza Strip yesterday after a long-range Grad rocket fired by Palestinians from the territory slammed into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
There were no immediate reports of casualties after the planes mostly bombed tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt and fired a missile at a training camp of the armed wing of Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the army to hit Hamas targets following the Grad attack. Two other homemade rockets landed at the Western Negev area, Israeli military sources said. None of the rockets caused any damage or injury.
No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.
Both sides ordered cease-fires on Jan. 18 after Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Gaza that killed over 1,300 Palestinians, at least 410 of them children.
Egypt has been trying with US backing to broker a long-term truce. Hamas said yesterday it would be prepared to halt hostilities for a year if a deal could be reached on lifting Israel’s crippling blockade of Gaza. A Hamas delegation planned to meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo to deliver a response to the truce proposals.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of some Arab states meeting in Abu Dhabi yesterday said they were seeking to consolidate Arab support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his row with Hamas. “Our aim is to boost Arab solidarity, to mobilize our backing for the Arab peace initiative and to bolster support for the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas,” the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said.
Sheikh Abdullah said ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority also backed the Palestine Liberation Organization as the “sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” after Hamas called for it to be replaced by a body less dominated by allies of Abbas.
The ministers backed Egypt’s efforts and were preparing the ground for a donors conference in Egypt on Feb. 22 aimed at helping the Palestinian people, with the full involvement of the Palestinian Authority. “The ministers who met here today were all in support of the Egyptian initiative and Cairo’s effort to achieve calm between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,” Sheikh Abdullah said.
He said the Abu Dhabi meeting was expected to be the first of several taking place over the coming weeks aimed at bridging differences among Arab countries that were underscored by divisions over how best to deal with the Gaza offensive.
“We are working to overcome this difficult time in the Arab world to achieve a reconciliation that will put an end to unwelcome involvement in our affairs by non-Arab parties in an often nonconstructive manner,” Sheikh Abdullah said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Abu Dhabi yesterday for a two-day visit, called for the opening of the crossings of the Gaza Strip: “We must have a durable cease-fire (in Gaza) that is sustainable through diplomatic efforts. The longer the cease-fire holds, the better for the peace process in the region.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised a sustained US diplomatic effort aimed at creating “an independent and viable” Palestinian state but renewed calls on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel.
Clinton, who stood next to her special envoy after his return from his first trip to the Middle East, said George Mitchell would return to the region before the end of the month.
— With input from K.T. Abdurrab and agencies
