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Gaza fuel depot closed after
attack
Jerusalem— Israel cut off all fuel supplies to Gaza’s 1.4 million
residents Thursday, a day after four Palestinian militants
infiltrated the Israeli depot that is the territory’s sole source of
fuel, and shot dead two civilian workers. The brazen daylight raid
in southern Israel threatened to set off a new round of fighting in
Gaza after a monthlong lull and could jeopardize recently renewed
peace efforts.
Three smaller militant factions claimed they carried out the attack,
but the Israeli government held Gaza’s Hamas rulers responsible. It
sent tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory after
the raid, killing at least eight Palestinians, including three
civilians. And it warned that more reprisals could be coming.
“We will chose the time and the place to respond. The blame lies on
Hamas as the responsible authority there,” Matan Vilnai, Israel’s
deputy defense minister, told Israel’s Army Radio.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, which took part in the attack,
called the raid, which was carried out under cover of mortar fire, a
“unique and complicated operation.”Abu Ahmed of Islamic Jihad said
the attack was intended to target the fuel depot on which Gazans
depend.
The fuel “is dipped in humiliation,” he said, because people wait
for it for hours. “If their fuel means humiliation for us, we don’t
want it.”Maj. Tal Levram, an Israeli army spokesman, said the
militants apparently were planning to carry out a broader attack on
a neighboring Israeli village or to kidnap soldiers, but were
thwarted by the arrival of Israeli troops.
Palestinian militants frequently attack the Israeli border, but they
rarely succeed in getting through. In another daring daytime raid in
June 2006, militants tunneled into Israel, killed two soldiers and
captured a third. The soldier, Cpl. Gilad Schalit, remains in
captivity in Gaza.
Wednesday’s attack upset more than a month of calm following a broad
Israeli military offensive that killed more than 120 Gazans,
including dozens of civilians. Since the offensive ended in early
March, Egypt has been trying to mediate a cease-fire between Israel
and Hamas, and the sides appear to have been honoring an informal
truce.
Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after the Islamic militant group
seized control of the territory in June, and has reduced the flow of
fuel, electricity and basic goods. The sanctions have hit hard and
Hamas threatened on Tuesday to blow up Gaza’s borders with Israel
and Egypt to relieve the strain.
Israel has taken the threat seriously because Hamas breached the
Egyptian border in January, allowing tens of thousands of people to
pour into Egypt for more than a week before the border was resealed.
On Thursday, an Israeli think tank reported that Hamas’ military
buildup is at its peak, despite the international blockade on
Gaza.The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said the
Islamic militant Hamas group has organized 20,000 armed forces and
acquired longer-range rockets and advanced anti-tank
weapons.—Agencies
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