Israel holds Hamas leaders amid crisis
Israel holds Hamas leaders amid crisis
By Ferry Biedermann
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: June 29 2006 10:35 | Last updated: June 29 2006 17:50
With Israel poised to broaden its incursion into the Gaza Strip to free a captured soldier, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has appealed to the United Nations to help contain the crisis.
Mr Abbas asked the UN’s help in obtaining the release of dozens of lawmakers and cabinet ministers of the ruling Hamas movement who had been seized by the Israeli army earlier in the day.
Around the world, concerns over the escalating crisis mounted. The European Union said it was “deeply concerned” by the humanitarian consequences of the Israeli actions in Gaza. A power station that supplies large parts of the population with electricity and that is needed for powering water pumps was knocked out by air strikes on Wednesday morning.
Foreign Ministers of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations, meeting in Moscow, called for the release of the captured soldier but also urged Israel to show restraint.
Amir Peretz, Israel’s defence minister, on Thursday gave the green light for a broadening of the army’s largest incursion into Gaza since the withdrawal last year. A foreign ministry spokesman also said that the “current situation is unsustainable”. The army is massed outside the north of the strip, after having invaded the south on Wednesday.
But an incursion into the north has been delayed, according to security officials. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the move appeared to be in response to an Egyptian request to allow more time for negotiations to obtain the release of the soldier.
In the north of Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian militants took up positions to counter the expected second Israeli incursion. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has said that it is not his intention to re-occupy Gaza but that the operation is aimed at freeing the kidnapped soldier who was seized on Sunday in an attack in which militants belonging to Hamas participated.
Israel is planning to put the Hamas leaders whom it seized in the West Bank on trial under anti-terror legislation, reported the Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Thursday. Israeli forces detained 64 activists, including dozens of members of parliament and eight government ministers in raids across the occupied territory.
The army said it did not intend to use the detainees as bargaining chips for the release of the captured soldier. But a spokesman for the military wing of Hamas called the action “blackmail”.
On Thursday morning the Israeli army said it had found the body of a missing settler, 18-year old Eliyahu Asheri, in a field near Ramallah. Security officials said that they had arrested a member of the militant Popular Resistance Committees that had taken responsibility for the killing.
The group had threatened to kill Mr Asheri if Israel did not stop its incursion into Gaza. On Thursday a spokesman for the group said Mr Asheri had been killed as a response to the incursion. But security sources said that Mr Asheri had apparently been killed on Sunday.
Another Israeli man whose kidnapping was claimed by a militant Palestinian group was found dead of what looked like natural causes, Israeli police said. They speculated that the group had found the missing man’s name on the internet.
By Ferry Biedermann
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: June 29 2006 10:35 | Last updated: June 29 2006 17:50
With Israel poised to broaden its incursion into the Gaza Strip to free a captured soldier, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has appealed to the United Nations to help contain the crisis.
Mr Abbas asked the UN’s help in obtaining the release of dozens of lawmakers and cabinet ministers of the ruling Hamas movement who had been seized by the Israeli army earlier in the day.
Around the world, concerns over the escalating crisis mounted. The European Union said it was “deeply concerned” by the humanitarian consequences of the Israeli actions in Gaza. A power station that supplies large parts of the population with electricity and that is needed for powering water pumps was knocked out by air strikes on Wednesday morning.
Foreign Ministers of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations, meeting in Moscow, called for the release of the captured soldier but also urged Israel to show restraint.
Amir Peretz, Israel’s defence minister, on Thursday gave the green light for a broadening of the army’s largest incursion into Gaza since the withdrawal last year. A foreign ministry spokesman also said that the “current situation is unsustainable”. The army is massed outside the north of the strip, after having invaded the south on Wednesday.
But an incursion into the north has been delayed, according to security officials. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the move appeared to be in response to an Egyptian request to allow more time for negotiations to obtain the release of the soldier.
In the north of Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian militants took up positions to counter the expected second Israeli incursion. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has said that it is not his intention to re-occupy Gaza but that the operation is aimed at freeing the kidnapped soldier who was seized on Sunday in an attack in which militants belonging to Hamas participated.
Israel is planning to put the Hamas leaders whom it seized in the West Bank on trial under anti-terror legislation, reported the Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Thursday. Israeli forces detained 64 activists, including dozens of members of parliament and eight government ministers in raids across the occupied territory.
The army said it did not intend to use the detainees as bargaining chips for the release of the captured soldier. But a spokesman for the military wing of Hamas called the action “blackmail”.
On Thursday morning the Israeli army said it had found the body of a missing settler, 18-year old Eliyahu Asheri, in a field near Ramallah. Security officials said that they had arrested a member of the militant Popular Resistance Committees that had taken responsibility for the killing.
The group had threatened to kill Mr Asheri if Israel did not stop its incursion into Gaza. On Thursday a spokesman for the group said Mr Asheri had been killed as a response to the incursion. But security sources said that Mr Asheri had apparently been killed on Sunday.
Another Israeli man whose kidnapping was claimed by a militant Palestinian group was found dead of what looked like natural causes, Israeli police said. They speculated that the group had found the missing man’s name on the internet.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 10:38 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home