GAZA CITY, 25 October 2006 — The Israeli Army will continue its operations in the Gaza Strip to prevent Palestinian rocket attacks and arms smuggling from Egypt, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday.
Peretz, on a tour of the Israel-Gaza border, spoke hours after the army ended a weeklong operation along the border.
The death toll from Monday’s offensive in Gaza rose to eight yesterday when a Palestinian died of his wounds. Israeli troops raided the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, one of the bloodiest days of fighting during a four-month offensive. The dead included a top Palestinian fighter.
The military’s operation along the border corridor was meant to find and blow up tunnels used to smuggle arms into Gaza. The army said it destroyed 15 tunnels during the operation, the first along the border since Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005.
The army will not reoccupy or remain in Gaza, Peretz said. But it will operate continuously to ensure that fighters in the coastal area are not able to arm themselves in the same way as Hezbollah fighters were able to do in southern Lebanon after Israel ended its occupation of the area in May 2000. “We will do everything necessary to ensure that Gaza does not turn into south Lebanon,” Peretz said.
During a monthlong war last summer, Hezbollah attacked Israel with thousands of rockets it had stockpiled during the six years since Israel left the area.
Israeli Army chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said yesterday that Palestinians were building an “underground city,” digging hundreds of tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen kidnapped an Associated Press photographer in the Gaza Strip yesterday, grabbing him as he walked out of his apartment and whisked him away in their vehicle, a witness said.
Spaniard photographer Emilio Morenatti, 37, was heading for a car, where Majed Hamdan, an AP driver and translator, was waiting. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head and threatening to harm him if he moved. Then they grabbed Morenatti, shoved him into a white Volkswagen and drove off, Hamdan said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, condemned the kidnapping, saying it “damages the reputation of the Palestinian people.” “The government will take all steps to ensure his release,” Hamad said.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the kidnapping “contradicts our culture and our morals and our religion.” He said the Islamic group called on the kidnappers “not to harm Emilio and release him immediately.”
Saeb Erekat, a confidant of President Mahmoud Abbas of the moderate Fatah party, also condemned Morenatti’s kidnapping, saying it “harms Palestinian interests.”
“President Abbas is personally following the matter. We have been in touch with the government, the Presidential Guards and other security branches in order to acquire his immediate release,” Erekat said.
Later yesterday, Abbas spoke to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos and assured him he was doing everything in his power to get Morenatti released quickly, Erekat said. Abbas is expected to return later yesterday to the West Bank from Jordan, where he is visiting his son in an Amman hospital.
Spanish diplomats confirmed that Moratinos, a former EU Mideast envoy, was personally involved in the case.
Tom Curley, the AP president and chief executive officer in New York, said the company was doing everything to find Morenatti.
“The Associated Press is working to find out just what happened to Emilio. We are in contact with Palestinian officials and leaders to learn more, and to try and obtain his release. Our main concern now, however, is for his safety,” Curley said.
“Emilio has spent his career representing the values that AP stands for — truthful, accurate journalism that tells all sides of the story. It is a sad development when the men and women the world rely on to bring them objective news are subject to such dangers. No cause or motive can justify such senseless action,” Curley said.
— With input from agencies
