IHT : Israel restricts Gaza crossing as firing persists

Israel restricts Gaza crossing as firing persists

By Isabel Kershner | October 28, 2007

JERUSALEM: Israeli officials said Sunday that Israel had begun reducing fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip and had closed one of the two crossings through which food, medicine and other supplies pass into the area, in line with a recent government decision to impose sanctions in response to continued rocket fire from the Hamas-run territory.

Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency that oversees supplies to Gaza, said the plan was to reduce the amount of fuel by 5 percent to 11 percent. He said that the industrial fuel needed to operate the Gaza power plant would not be affected, but that cuts would be made in the supply of benzene, which is mostly for private use, and diesel, mostly used for public transportation and service vehicles such as ambulances.

Dror said the Sufa crossing to the north had been closed, leaving the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south as the only point of entry for goods.

The main commercial crossing on the Gaza-Israel border, Karni, has been closed since the militant Islamic group Hamas took over Gaza in June, routing Fatah forces, including the elite Presidential Guard, which had secured the Palestinian side of the border crossings, by agreement with Israel. The Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border has also been formally closed since June.

Israel, like the United States and the European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist organization and refuses to deal with it. Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and its charter seeks Israel's destruction.

As a result, only limited supplies of basic goods are allowed to enter the strip, and all exports of produce are prohibited.

With only Kerem Shalom functioning, the number of trucks of food and other goods entering Gaza will be reduced to roughly 55 trucks a day from 100 to 120, Dror said. "We will allow in the minimum amount of food and medicines necessary to avoid a humanitarian crisis," he said.

Israel also supplies about two thirds of Gaza's electricity, and has threatened limited cuts in response to the rocket fire. But Israeli officials said such a move was awaiting the approval of the attorney general after a petition by human rights groups to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Dror suggested that the electricity cuts would be symbolic. "We are talking about cutting 1 percent of the supply for 15 minutes at a time," he said.

In Gaza, a Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, said his group would "examine the effects" of the measures "on the ground, particularly in the spheres of health and education, and then we will act." He would not be more specific, but said Hamas would work on its own plan.

Mojahed Salama, who leads the Palestinian Authority's petroleum agency in Gaza, told news agencies that Sunday's fuel imports showed a 40 percent to 50 percent cut in diesel and benzene supplies, and a 12 percent cut in fuel for Gaza's power plant.

"We sent the supplying company the same daily requests, but they said they were sorry and that because of the new imposed sanctions, they could only send us a reduced quantity," Salama told Reuters.

A spokesman for Dor Alon, the Israeli energy company that serves Gaza, said that it had "received instructions" from the Israeli Defense Ministry and that it was "acting according" to them. Dror said the amount of fuel entering Gaza would be measured over a week, not on a daily basis, so that if the full amount of benzene entered one day, less would enter the next day.

Shadi Yassin, a spokesman for the Israeli Coordination and Liaison Administration at the Gaza crossings, said that fuel for ambulances and other emergency services would be allowed in as necessary, and that care would be taken to maintain energy supplies to Gaza hospitals.

In September, the Israeli cabinet declared Gaza to be "hostile territory" in response to the rocket fire directed at Israel. On Thursday, Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, approved the government plan to restrict fuel and electricity supplies.

An Israeli Army spokesman said more than 1,000 rockets and mortar shells were launched against Israel in the past four months. Several rockets landed in and around Sderot in the past week, causing damage but no casualties.

Hamas said it was not launching rockets at Israel, but acknowledged firing mortar shells at Israeli military positions, usually in response to Israeli actions. Most of the rockets are being fired at Israel by smaller groups like Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Israel holds Hamas, as the controlling authority in Gaza, responsible for the rocket and mortar fire, even if other militant groups are firing.

Dror said that if mortar shells were fired at the Kerem Shalom crossing, it would be closed immediately for the day, and that the effects would soon be felt in Gaza.

"We are sending a very clear signal to the Palestinians in Gaza that they had better start making their own arrangements" to look after their needs, he said, adding that the pressure might "move Hamas" from its current position of refusing to recognize Israel.

David Baker, an Israeli spokesman, said that "Israel will take the necessary steps to stop the continuous rocket fire," which he called "untenable."