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Israel again pounded by Gaza rockets
AFP - Friday, December 26
JERUSALEM (AFP) - - Gaza militants fired off another barrage of mortars and rockets against Israel on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesman said, as Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed the Jewish state would strike back at the Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory.
Despite the fresh attacks, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had decided to open the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday "to allow the transfer to Gaza of vital humanitarian aide," his office said late Thursday.
Israeli public television said the minister's decision followed intense international pressure -- particularly from Egypt -- on Israel to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip, where most of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid.
The Israeli military spokesman said that armed Palestinians had during the course of Thursday fired from Gaza "at least 17 mortar rounds and three rockets which hit southern Israel."
One rocket -- a longer-range Grad -- fell in an industrial zone at the southern town of Ashkelon, the spokesman told AFP, adding that none of the projectiles caused casualties.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, during a visit to Cairo on Thursday, vowed to strike back at the Hamas rulers of Gaza.
"Enough is enough. The situation is going to change," Livni said after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip since a truce expired six days ago.
"Unfortunately there is one address to the situation of the people in the Gaza Strip, this is Hamas, Hamas controls them, Hamas decided to target Israel, this is something that has to be stopped and this is what we're going to do," she said in English.
"Yesterday's escalation was unbearable," Livni said after Gaza militants on Wednesday hit Israel with their biggest rocket barrage in six months to avenge the killing of three fighters from the Islamist movement.
"Hamas needs to understand that our aspiration for peace does not mean that Israel will take this situation any longer," Livni said at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.
"The situation in the Gaza Strip has become an obstacle on the way of the Palestinians toward a state," added Livni, who has vowed to topple Hamas if her Kadima party wins a general election in February.
Livni has been heading the Israeli negotiating team in peace talks with the Palestinians that resumed in November last year but have failed to make any visible headway since.
Abul Gheit, whose government mediated the six-month truce that expired on Friday, called for restraint in the impoverished territory that has been ruled by Hamas since it routed the rival Fatah movement in June 2007.
"Egypt has made clear that there should be restraint and no escalation and an alleviation of the humanitarian situation," he said, saying Israel should refrain from "collective punishment."
He said Egypt would continue its mediation efforts, but expressed pessimism that a new truce could be achieved.
"Egypt won't stop its efforts as long as the parties agree. But I do not imagine that we can convince both parties to return to the truce as long as there is such a strong confrontation between them."
Israel's Maariv newspaper said the security cabinet had given the army the go-ahead to conduct expanded operations in Gaza after a meeting on Wednesday.
Hamas has vowed to step up attacks if Israel strikes Gaza, a tiny enclave sandwiched between Egypt and Israel that is home to 1.5 million largely aid-dependent Palestinians.
Since Friday's expiry of the truce, Israel has threatened to launch a major offensive on Gaza, with top leaders threatening to topple Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel and the West.
In turn, Hamas -- which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state -- has warned it would retaliate by resuming suicide bombings inside Israel. The last such attack was in January 2005.
A UN statement said UN chief Ban Ki-moon was "gravely concerned" about the situation, that he condemned the rocket attacks and also called for an urgent easing of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Pope Benedict XVI also urged an end to "hatred and violence" in the Middle East during his midnight mass Christmas homily ahead of a planned trip to the region.
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Enlarge Photo
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) shakes hands with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during a meeting in Cairo. Gaza militants fired off another barrage of mortars and rockets against Israel on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesman said, as Livni vowed the Jewish state would strike back at the Hamas rulers of the Palestinian territory.
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