GAZA CITY, 25 June 2006 — Israel made arrests after raiding the Gaza Strip for the first time yesterday since it pulled out a year ago, detaining two Hamas fighters.
The father of the men said he awoke to see Israeli soldiers scaling the walls of his compound in southern Gaza. He said they handcuffed and beat him and then searched his home, confiscating his computer and detaining the two sons.
The army said the men were Hamas members who had planned to carry out an attack on Israel in the next few days. Hamas denied any connection with the men. One of those arrested was a doctor who had spent time in Sudan, which Israel considers an enemy state harboring anti-Israelis, before arriving in Gaza last month. The other was a student of Islamic law, their father said. Some right-wing Israeli politicians warned that last year’s pullout of Jewish settlers and soldiers would leave Gaza open to infiltration by foreigners, including members of Al-Qaeda. Palestinian security services deny foreign groups have a foothold in the impoverished coastal strip.
Israel has entered Gaza to attack militants firing barrages of homemade rockets at the Jewish state. But yesterday’s incursion marked the first arrest raid since the pullout.
Southern Command spokesman Maj. Tal Lev-Ram denied the raid marked a change in tactics, saying Israel would target militants by all means necessary. He did not rule out further arrests. Israeli airstrikes have killed 15 civilians in Gaza in recent attacks aimed at Palestinians involved in firing rockets at southern Israel. Israel has faced growing international criticism over the airstrikes but has said they will continue.
“Every army operation ... would not be necessary if there was no terror carried out from Gaza,” Lev-Ram said. “There is a war being waged on us that we did not start.” The arrests came as President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were expected to discuss a proposal for statehood that implicitly recognizes Israel.
Locked in an increasingly violent power struggle with the three-month-old Hamas government, Abbas has called a referendum for July 26 on the manifesto unless agreement is reached. If the current talks fail, Abbas, has promised to put the so-called prisoners’ initiative to the referendum.
