ISRAELI AIRCRAFT attacked a Palestinian rocket-launching squad in the Gaza Strip yesterday as Israel’s foreign minister urged tougher military action, declaring that the truce with Hamas is over.
The air strike, the third in 24 hours, followed the weekend firing by Palestinian militants of more than 20 rockets and mortars into southern Israel.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni accused defence minister Ehud Barak of failing to respond with sufficient force to quell the rocket fire, saying the ceasefire is over.
“Those referring to it as a truce don’t know what is going on there,” Ms Livni said.
Mr Barak said the foreign minister’s comments were motivated by the upcoming Israeli general election.
Israel’s decision to keep the Gaza border crossings closed in response to the rocket fire prompted a UN aid agency to warn that it will be forced to stop distributing essential supplies in the coming days.
Officials from the World Bank warned over the weekend that Gaza banks were on the verge of collapse due to an acute cash shortage because Israel is refusing to allow Palestinian banks to transfer money to their Gaza branches.
The Israeli police yesterday prevented a boat packed with food and medicine sailing from Tel Aviv to Gaza.
Police officials told Israeli Arab organisers of the humanitarian initiative that the sailing would violate the strict blockade imposed on the Hamas-controlled territory.
Israel also refused permission for a Qatari ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza to dock in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
In a bid to boost the standing of moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the Israeli cabinet yesterday approved the names of 230 Palestinian prisoners – most of them from Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement – to be freed tomorrow, to coincide with a Muslim holiday.
Mary Fitzgerald, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, adds: Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has called on the EU to upgrade its relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), in tandem with efforts to boost ties between Europe and Israel.
In a joint letter sent to French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner ahead of today’s General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting in Brussels, Mr Martin and Cypriot foreign minister Markos Kyprianou urged a more active engagement with the PA at bilateral level.
“We need to work more closely with the Palestinian Authority in order to promote democracy and the rule of law, safeguard human rights, integrate the Palestinian economy into the world market, and build up the capacities of Palestinian society as it prepares for statehood,” the letter said.
The two ministers say they welcome the fact that such upgrading of relations with the PA is “clearly foreseen” in the revised EU Action Strategy for Peace in the Middle East, due for consideration at today’s meeting.
“The council now needs to consider urgently ways in which we can effectively enhance our relations with the Palestinian Authority,” the letter stated.
Mr Martin and his Cypriot counterpart called for a set of proposals detailing how the EU can continue to “support the achievement of Palestinian statehood and step up relations with the PA”.