Desperate "Israel" Closes Gaza Crossings

Source: Alalam.ir, 15-09-2008

AL-QUDS-‘Israeli' occupying regime has closed the crossings into the Gaza Strip claiming that the decision was made after a rocket fired from the besieged territory struck southern occupied
territories of Palestine.

An ‘Israeli' army spokeswoman claimed that a rocket had landed in an open field in the center of Sderot, adding "no one was injured in the attack".

The office of War Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement, "following the incident he ordered the indefinite closure on Monday of all crossings into Gaza, effectively sealing off the impoverished territory to badly needed supplies for its 1.5 million Palestinians.

The statement alleged that the rocket attack threatens a fragile June 19 truce brokered by Egypt between ‘Israel' and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) after months of deadly violence.

Both sides have accused the other of violating the truce, with Hamas demanding that ‘Israel' lift its embargo of Gaza and ‘Israel' accusing the movement of using the period of calm to rearm.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement on Sunday called on the Palestinians to get ready for an ‘Israeli' decision ending a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

"There is a clear Zionist decision and trend to end and break the lull" due to the conditions of the ‘Israeli' regime, said Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader.

‘Israeli' Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will resign on Wednesday after being indicted of corruption and receiving bribery before he took his post.

According to al-Batsh, the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire "did not achieve any of its goals of lifting the blockade and reopening the crossing points."

"The Zionist enemy continues its crackdown and terror acts against the Palestinians and this must push us to reconsider the ceasefire decision," he added.

This is while that Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal has said the resistance want to agree a deal "as soon as possible" to exchange Palestinian prisoners for captured ‘Israeli' trooper Gilad Shalit.

"Hamas does not want to postpone negotiations on the prisoner exchange or demand new conditions, but we refuse to be blackmailed by ‘Israel', which wants (to reduce) the number of Palestinian prisoners who should be freed," Meshaal said in a speech late on Saturday.

"We have called for the release of more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners but ‘Israel' intends to release only 450," he said at a meeting in Damascus marking the holy month of Ramadan.

Meshaal also appealed to Arab leaders including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, to help lift the ‘Israeli' blockade on Gaza.