Haniyeh says Hamas won't give into Israeli demands
In his first public address since Israel began its offensive into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas today said his government would not cave into Israeli demands but said he was working hard to end a five-day-old crisis with Israel.
Though Haniyeh did not directly address Israel’s demand that Palestinian militants hand over an abducted Israeli soldier, he implied that the government would not trade him for eight Cabinet ministers and 56 other Hamas officials arrested yesterday.
“When they kidnapped the ministers they meant to hijack the government’s position, but we say no positions will be hijacked, no governments will fall,” he said.
A few hours before Haniyeh spoke, Israeli jet fighters destroyed the offices of his interior minister in Gaza, intensifying an air invasion while delaying a broad ground offensive in hopes that pressure on the Hamas government will secure the release of the kidnapped soldier.
This evening, an Israeli aircraft attacked a vehicle in Gaza City which the military said was carrying militants. Witnesses said a missile exploded next to the car, wounding three members of the violent Islamic Jihad group.
Israel’s air force has struck more than 30 targets in Gaza in the past 24 hours, hitting roads, bridges and the strip’s only power plant. The army has also fired hundreds of artillery shells. The offensive is meant to pressure Hamas-linked militants to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, who was captured on Sunday when Gaza militants tunnelled under the border, attacking an Israeli outpost and killing two other soldiers.
The Bush administration said today it hopes that Israel and Hamas can end the crisis.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Bush’s press secretary Tony Snow said: “There are two things: No. 1, Hamas must return the soldier. And we know there have been some offers – some public offers – by Hamas today to do that. ... The other thing we’ve said is that the Israelis need to practice restraint. And we are encouraged by the fact that the Israelis are standing down in Gaza and that Hamas is talking openly about repatriating the soldier, and we continue to watch the developments.”
Snow said he is not aware of any direct consultations that Bush or his Cabinet are having with Israel.
In New York, the UN Security Council was to hold an emergency debate today on the Israeli attacks in Gaza, and the Palestinians said they will demand a resolution condemning Israel’s aggression and demanding that it stop.
The United Nations said the destruction of the power plant had pushed Gaza to the edge of a humanitarian crisis, and the International Committee of the Red Cross said its officials were in talks with Israeli authorities to get the military blockade of Gaza lifted for shipments of aid.
“The ICRC is in negotiations with Israel in an effort to bring into Gaza medical supplies, ambulances and food parcels,” said Red Cross spokesman Casper Landolt.
“There is also a need for fuel since the bombing of the power station.”
Palestinian security officials said an Israeli soldier was shot and wounded in clashes near the long-closed airport in southern Gaza. The army said it was investigating that claim. The Israeli military took over the airport when its ground forces penetrated Gaza on Wednesday.
While thousands of troops are massed along the Israel-Gaza border waiting for the go-ahead for a massive invasion into the crowded coastal area, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said militants had agreed to Shalit’s conditional release, but Israel had not accepted the terms.
Israeli officials said they did not know of such an agreement. But a senior government official said the planned ground offensive had been delayed due to a request by Egypt that mediators be given a chance to resolve the crisis.
However, other officials denied the delay was due to Egypt, saying it reflected Israel’s overall management of the crisis, which they said required both military pressure and withholding force when necessary.
“The prime minister is managing the campaign while seeing all the balances, including the diplomatic one. He needs to see the big picture, and the big picture is that there is a meaning to sometimes waiting a half a day, or a day. You need to exhaust all options,” said Tzahi Hanegbi, head of the Israeli parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.
Haniyeh said today that he was in contact with Arab, Muslim and European leaders to try to resolve the crisis, “but this Israeli military escalation complicates matters and makes it more difficult.” He also accused Israel of using Shalit’s abduction as a pretext for launching a major offensive aimed at bringing down his government.
“This total war is proof of a premeditated plan,” he said.
Mohammed Nazal, a Damascus-based member of the Hamas politburo, said today that Israel is not serious about negotiating Shalit’s release.
“Israel is negotiating by fire,” he said. “They’re buying time until they can locate the soldier through intelligence and then try to free him.”
There has been no sign of life from Shalit since his abduction on Sunday. The Popular Resistance Committees – one of the groups holding him – revealed no information about his condition in a statement yesterday, but insisted on swapping him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israel has rejected that demand.
In the pre-dawn attack on the Interior Ministry, Hamas minister Said Siyam’s office went up in flames when a missile struck his fourth-floor room. The ground floor office of Siyam’s bodyguard was also destroyed, while the first, second and third floors of the buildings – where passports and ID cards are printed - were left untouched. No casualties were reported in the strike.
The Interior Ministry is nominally in charge of the Palestinian security forces, but President Mahmoud Abbas stripped it of much of its authority in a power struggle that erupted after Hamas won a January parliamentary election. The Israeli military said it targeted the ministry because it was “a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity.”
In a separate strike, three Israeli missiles hit the office of hard-line Interior Ministry official Khaled Abu Hilal, who heads a pro-Hamas militia.
Palestinian police and members of the Hamas militia guarding the nearby Foreign Ministry fled immediately after the attack on the Interior Ministry, fearing their building would be next, witnesses said. Haniyeh’s office and Abbas’ house are less than half-a-mile from the Interior Ministry.
Before Haniyeh’s speech, he and nearly all the members his Cabinet had not been seen since Shalit’s kidnapping, fearing they could be killed or face a fate similar to that of their colleagues in the West Bank who were arrested yesterday.
In an unprecedented punishment today, the Israeli Interior Ministry revoked the Jerusalem residency rights of four senior Hamas officials, officials said. The measure takes away their right to live in the holy city and travel within Israel freely.
Today, the army said it also attacked a cell that attempted to fire an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Mohammed Abdel Al, 25, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, died early today of wounds he suffered in that airstrike. He was the first casualty in Israel’s three-day-old offensive.
In a gun battle in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, three Fatah-affiliated gunmen were wounded in what they said was a fight against undercover Israeli forces. Israel denied it had any ground forces in the area.
“The only ctivity is air and artillery,” said army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal. Israeli ground troops have entered southern Gaza but have not yet penetrated the north.
Yesterday evening, about 2,500 people attended a Hamas rally in Gaza City, denouncing Israel and calling for more abductions.
Palestinian militants launched homemade rockets last night, and four landed inside Israel, causing no damage or injuries, the army said. Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant group affiliated with Abbas’ Fatah, claimed responsibility.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed in a news conference in Gaza today that it had kidnapped a 22-year-old Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Nablus. However, the army said it had no knowledge of such abduction.
In another development, Israeli troops exchanged gunfire with militants at a cemetery in Nablus. Palestinian security officials said one militant was killed, but the army said two militants died.
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