GAZA CITY: The international Red Cross halted its service of escorting Palestinian ambulances in the Gaza Strip yesterday after one of its ambulances came under fire on Saturday night. The Red Cross decision was announced by spokesman Iyad Nasr.
Israeli forces have targeted several ambulances during the fighting. The Red Cross escorts are meant to provide extra protection to Palestinian ambulances and guarantee that all occupants are civilians.
On Thursday, the United Nations halted aid distribution among Gaza’s 1.5 million impoverished residents after two of its workers were killed in Israeli firing. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) yesterday resumed its operations.
Palestinian fighters ambushed a column of Israeli troops yesterday in one of the heaviest fighting so far in the 16-day-old war. Palestinians said Israeli troops moved to within one kilometer of Gaza City’s southern neighborhoods, and within half a kilometer of the northern neighborhood of Sheikh Ajleen.
The fighting in Sheikh Ajleen erupted before dawn and continued into the morning as Israeli infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City and its approximately 400,000 residents.
“We are safe, but we don’t know for how long,” said Khamis Alawi, 44, who huddled with his wife and six children in their kitchen. He said bullets riddled his walls and several came in through the windows.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the Israelis. Gunfire subsided in the early afternoon, with the Israelis in control of buildings on the neighborhood’s outskirts. Israeli tanks later withdrew from the area.
At least 29 Palestinians were killed yesterday, more than half of them civilians, medical workers said. The medics put the Palestinian casualty toll to at least 885 dead, including 275 children, and another 3,620 wounded. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket attacks.
Three Egyptian policemen and two children were wounded by shrapnel during Israeli airstrikes near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Two of the policemen, both officers, were seriously wounded and were in stable condition. The children, aged two and five, and another policeman suffered light wounds, an official said. The airstrikes appeared to be targeting smuggling tunnels about 400 meters from the Egyptian border, he added.
Witnesses said Israeli warplanes have been flying over Egyptian territory during their bombing runs. The witnesses, who did not want to be identified, said they had seen the Israeli planes fly over on several occasions, often at such low altitude that it was clear they were over Egyptian territory.
The Israeli Army claimed its troops on the Golan Heights came under small arms fire from Syria yesterday and that, although no one was hurt, it had complained to the United Nations force that monitors the frontier.
“Israel is getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet in Jerusalem, giving no time frame for an end to the war on Palestinians.
But Israeli officials suggested the Jewish state was nearing the end of its offensive. “The decision of the (UN) Security Council doesn’t give us much leeway,” Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio. “Thus it would seem that we are close to ending the ground operation and ending the operation altogether.”
With no sign of a Palestinian surrender despite colossal losses, Israel expressed frustration over its inability to assassinate the Hamas leadership. It accused Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip of hiding in foreign diplomatic missions in an effort to elude Israeli forces.
“The leaders of Hamas and the armed wing are hiding in bunkers, hospitals and foreign missions,” Israeli Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel told reporters.
He did not name the missions. Few countries have diplomatic missions in Gaza and even Egypt has withdrawn its staff.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Qatar had asked for an urgent meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss ways to end the Israeli offensive.
He said he had started consultation with the league’s 22 member-states to set a date for the meeting and speculated it could be held in Kuwait, which is hosting an Arab economic summit next week.
But Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani scoffed at Moussa’s efforts as being too late. “This is a shame. The Palestinians will be beaten by then,” he told Al-Jazeera news network.
He also ruled out the closure of an Israeli trade office in Doha over the Gaza conflict, saying such a move needed joint Arab backing. “If Arab countries decide collectively to sever relations (with Israel), we will join the Arabs,” Sheikh Hamad said.
— With input from agencies
