GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 11 November 2007 — Israel yesterday announced that it will cut the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip today or tomorrow, in order to deepen the isolation of the strip, admitting at the same time that this measure will not stop launching rockets against Israel, news reports said yesterday.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai stated that the decision to reduce the quantities of fuel to the Gaza Strip and cut off electricity for periods will be either today or tomorrow.
He added that, “Israel is seeking to sever all economic relations with the Gaza Strip,” explaining, “We want to be separated from the Gaza Strip in the level of infrastructure as possible.”
According to Vilnai, it is not a question of imposing sanctions because of the continued firing of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, but the completion of the process of separation with Gaza Strip but what hinders the implementation process is only a simple legal scrutiny.
Earlier in September, the Israeli government announced the Gaza Strip as “hostile entity” and followed by a decree by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to cut off electricity for periods from the Gaza Strip and reducing the supply of fuels, but the Israeli attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, hindered the implementation of the resolution for a period of time.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement yesterday said the Israeli occupation forces would never stop homemade Palestinian rockets even if it unleashed a wide offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli invasion will redouble the rocket fire because the Gaza Strip would be considered occupied,’ Naffez Azzam, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, told reporters in Gaza.
In Gaza, meanwhile, Palestinian medical sources reported yesterday that the medical teams found the corpses of two Palestinian youth who died after the Israeli soldiers positioned eastern Al-Burij refugee camp in the central of the Gaza Strip opened fire toward them on Friday night. The two youth were identified as Belal Al-Nabaheen, 16, and Jeahd Al-Nabaheen, 17.
