Gazans storm Egypt border crossing
Palestinians demand Egypt open border as Israel pledges to ease siege.
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Early on Wednesday, masked Palestinian fighters detonated explosives next to the border wall separating Gaza and Egypt, causing several holes in the iron barrier, witnesses said.
Witnessed reported seven holes in the wall but it did not seem as if anyone had immediately crossed the border, with Egyptian forces shining spotlights on the gaps and troops deployed to block any infiltration attempts at the only border crossing out of the Gaza Strip that bypasses Israel.
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Egypt called on Hamas, the faction that rules Gaza, to urge residents of the Gaza Strip to avoid further unrest.
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Gaza needs around 240 megawatt of electricity, but normally receives only about 200 megawatts, with 8 per cent from Egypt Israel is the only source of industrial fuel for Gaza’s power station Israel stopped supplying industrial fuel supplies to Gaza on January 19 The EU pays Israel around $10m per month for Gaza’s industrial fuel |
Meanwhile, amid mounting international fears of a humanitarian crisis, two lorries carrying cooking gas and three with diesel for generators passed through Israel’s Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City, early on Tuesday morning.
Israel has maintained all along that Hamas created an artificial crisis but on Tuesday it pledged to continue limited shipments of fuel, food and medicine to Gaza.
Arye Mekel, a spokesman for Israel‘s foreign ministry, pledged on Tuesday that the shipments would go on.
“We will continue [on Wednesday] and the coming days to deliver more aid to Gaza until all promised supplies get across,” he said.
The Israeli defence ministry ruled late on Tuesday that 250,000 litres of diesel fuel could be transferred into Gaza daily, but the crossings would remain closed to other goods and people until further notice.
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The rockets have killed 10 Israelis since 2005, while more than 700 Palestinians have died in Israeli raids over the same period Rocket attacks have increased sharply since April 2006 Between 2,500-3,000 settlers, out of 23,000, have fled Sderot because of the near-daily attacks The main impact of the rockets is psychological torment |
“This is insufficient and we will continue our efforts to get a total lifting of the blockade,” Abbas told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
However, Abbas said on Tuesday that he would not pull out of peace talks with Israel, deflecting pressure to cut off contacts.
“Halting contacts with Israel is useless,” he said in his first comment since the latest round of Israel-Hamas fighting erupted last week.
“On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people.”
The Palestinian president also renewed his criticism of rocket fire against Israel from Gaza.
“It is not the people who fire these rockets,” Abbas said. “We have condemned these futile launchings in the past and we continue to do so. They must stop.”
But Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader based in Damascus, said the rocket fire would continue as long as Israel continues its “onslaught” on Gaza and the West Bank.
“Let Israel stop its aggression and its occupation of Palestinian land and the resistance, including rockets, will stop,” he said in an interview.
In a clash early on Wednesday with Israeli forces near the closed Sufa crossing into Gaza, a Hamas fighter was killed, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military said soldiers exchanged fire with Palestinian fighters in the area.
The impact of the blockade, which left homes in the dark, drained hospitals of power and medicine, and caused sewage to flood the streets, sparked international condemnation.
Sparring at UN
Israeli and Palestinian envoys meanwhile traded accusations in the UN Security Council as the 15-nation body met to discuss the Gaza crisis.
Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, described the situation as “absolutely untenable”.
“The Israeli policy of brinkmanship is creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, heightening fears and tensions, inciting, provoking and fuelling the vicious and dreaded cycle of violence,” he said.
Gilad Cohen, the Israeli envoy, rejected Mansour’s accusation that Israel was acting in violation of international law.
“It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism,” Cohen told the council.