GAZA CITY, 12 July 2006 — Israel battered the Gaza Strip with new airstrikes yesterday as troops stood poised to launch further invasions in a deadly offensive that has killed more than 50 Palestinians in a week. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh slammed the assault, accusing Israel and its US ally of trying to topple his Hamas government — boycotted and starved of funds by the West since its election in January.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has defended the scale of the bloody operation, aimed at securing the release of a captive teenage soldier, despite international criticism that the force has been disproportionate. He has flatly refused to negotiate with Hamas or free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, vowing the assault will continue “in places, in time, in measures” at Israel’s convenience.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled: “Aggression Under False Pretences,” Haniyeh, whose Gaza offices have been bombed, said freeing Shalit “is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.” “Surely the American people grow weary of this folly, after 50 years and $160 billion in taxpayer support for Israel’s war-making capacity,” Haniyeh wrote, urging Americans to end their government’s support for Israel.
A Palestinian security officer was killed and six people wounded in Israeli airstrikes hitting northern Gaza, medical sources said, as the punishing aerial campaign moved into a third week. The raids — which the Israeli military said targeted rockets and a “cell about to launch them” — came just one day after nine Palestinians died from Israeli fire around the impoverished and radicalized Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Army said the deadly air raid targeted a vehicle used to reach a rocket-launch site and loaded with rockets in the Beit Hanun area. The local head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abu Ghazal, managed to escape the vehicle unharmed, said a spokesman for the group, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.
A 12-year-old boy who was wounded in an airstrike on July 6 died of his wounds, bringing to 52 the number of Palestinians killed in the operation, on top of one Israeli soldier killed by friendly fire.
Despite the mounting death toll, defense sources said the government had given the military authority to continue, and if necessary, intensify the offensive, with infantry and armor poised to carry out “in-depth” incursions.
In a statement issued after his weekly Cabinet meeting, Haniyeh warned against a “humanitarian tragedy” developing in Gaza as a result of Israel’s continuing “blockade” of the impoverished territory. Aid groups have also expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government.
The European Commission announced yesterday it was sending emergency fuel supplies to Gaza through an international mechanism set up to meet basic Palestinian needs after the West cut direct aid to the Hamas-led government.
