Israel vows to intensify Gaza bombardments

An Israeli artillery unit fires toward the Gaza Strip from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near Karni crossing. Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel would intensify its bombardments of Gaza, as Palestinian premier Ismail Haniya accused Israel of trying to bring the Palestinian people to their knees.(AFP/Samuel Aranda)  

April 11, 2006

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel would intensify its bombardments of Gaza, as Palestinian premier Ismail Haniya accused Israel of trying to bring the Palestinian people to their knees.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed since Friday night by Israeli air strikes and tank shelling designed to put a permanent halt to repeated salvoes of makeshift missiles fired by hardline factions such as Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

The latest victim was an eight-year-old girl who died on Monday when an Israeli shell struck a house in the Beit Lahiya region of northern Gaza. A seven-year-old boy was also killed in an air strike on Friday.

But Israeli ministers, while expressing regret over the deaths, made clear Tuesday that there would be no easing off in the military activity.

"As long as calm does not prevail on the Israeli side, neither will it do so on the Palestinian side," said the defence minister. "Our operations are going to intensify."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni struck a similarly uncompromising line.

"The role of the Israeli army is to defend Israeli civilians, combat terrorism and prevent rocket attacks," she told public radio. "As long as Palestinians fire at residential areas, the army must reply."

But Haniya said the bombardments were clearly designed to shatter the will of the Palestinian people.

"The bombardments in the north of the Gaza Strip and in (southern) Khan Yunis ... are part of a political and economic siege of the Palestinian people," said Haniya, whose Hamas movement came to power two weeks ago.

"This is an attempt to bring the Palestinian people to their knees and strangle the government which was democratically elected," he added.

Both Jihad and Al-Aqsa insisted they would not be cowed into submission.

"We will continue firing rockets in response to the crimes and Israeli aggressions, namely their assassinations and bombardments against the Palestinian people," Al-Aqsa Brigades spokesman Abu Ahmed told AFP.

A spokesman for Jihad, the most hardline of all the Palestinian factions, said the movement would "continue to respond to the Israeli aggression by any means."

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas said that his office had been in contact with the Israeli government over the bombardments.

"We are making these contacts to stop the Israeli escalation in Gaza," he said without elaborating.

A senior military source said a fall in the number of rocket attacks had already been detected and that their effectiveness had been diminished.

"At this stage our action has proved to be effective. There were two incidents today when Qassam (rocket) launchers backtracked because of our artillery. There are more rockets falling in Palestinian areas because they need to hurry," he told AFP.

The officer said plans had been drawn up for a ground operation, but any such move would require approval from government ministers.

"This isn't a fantasy. One of the reasons we planned this intermediate stage was to avoid a ground operation. There are other means that should be used before going in."

Israel withdrew all its ground troops from the Gaza Strip last September and its bombardments of the territory have been either from the air or sea or by tank shelling from across the border. Livni acknowledged that such tactics could have tragic consequences.

The Gaza head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, expressed "great concern" over the situation after visiting UN-run schools which he feared could end up in the firing line.

"There are very real concerns and we want this to be taken into account," he said.

And a group of Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations called for the military to cancel its decision to reduce the "safety zone" for artillery fire.

Physicians for Human Rights, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program said "massive artillery fire causes disproportionate harm to the civilian population."

The joint statement said such attacks constitute a "blatant violation of the Basic Rule of the laws of armed conflict, whereby civilians and civilian objects must be distinguished from military objectives."

Meanwhile, 72 percent of respondents in a poll of Israeli Jews broadcast by public television said they supported stepping up the bombardment campaign. And 80 percent agreed with the government's position of not having any contact with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. AFP