Eye For and Eye: Israel Creates Palestinian "Humanitarian Crisis"

An Israeli soldier points his rifle towards the Gaza Strip from an Israeli army gathering point near Kibbutz Mefalsim, southern Israel, Wednesday June 28, 2006. Israeli aircraft struck northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday as thousands of troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, forged into the coastal strip in an operation meant to pummel Palestinian militants into releasing an Israeli soldier. (AP Photo / Ariel Schalit)

June 28, 2006

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

RAFAH, Gaza Strip -Israel turned up the pressure on Palestinian militants to release a captive soldier Wednesday, sending its warplanes to bomb a Hamas training camp after knocking out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the Gaza offensive would not secure the soldier's release. Hamas-affiliated militants holding the hostage previously made that demand, but this was the first time the government did.

Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments, preparing for a major strike after Israel sent in troops and tanks and bombarded bridges and a power station. Warplanes fired missiles in northern and souther Gaza.

No casualties have been reported since the offensive began early Wednesday.

Residents of northern Gaza, preparing for what they feared could be a long military operation, stocked up on food, candles and batteries for radios as a minister warned of a "humanitarian crisis."

It was Israel's first ground offensive since pulling its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not balk at "extreme action" to bring Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, home but did not intend to reoccupy Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity," and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.

Meanwhile, concerns about the fate of a missing West Bank settler grew after militants claiming to hold him displayed what they said was a copy of his identification card.

Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of Rafah overnight under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said troops moved a mile inside the coastal strip.

Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said. The station's three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames.

Wasfi Kabha, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, said the Israeli attacks were creating a "humanitarian crisis."

"They hit the bridges, they hit the power station, so there will be a problem in water supply and health services," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

The Israeli military said in a statement that three bridges were attacked "to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier." Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.

Witnesses reported heavy artillery shelling near the long-closed Gaza airport outside of Rafah, just over the border with Israel. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows.

Fighter jets repeatedly fired missiles at open fields in northern and southern Gaza in a show of force, the military said. Two of the missiles hit empty Hamas training camps in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. Separately, Israel attacked a rocket-making factory in southern Gaza.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said.

"All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days.

"We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home."

The militants who seized Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about the captured soldier.

Olmert repeated that Israel will not negotiate the release with militant groups.

Later, the Palestinian Information Ministry said it was "natural logic" to carry out a prisoner exchange.

"This has been exercised by previous Israeli governments with Hezbollah and the PLO, and this is what other countries do in conflict situations," the ministry statement said.

Shalit was taken captive Sunday during an attack on a southern Israeli military post by militants affiliated with the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party. Israel believes the group's Syria-based leaders ordered the operation.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Hamas' Syria-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, was "not immune" from Israeli reprisal.

"Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target," Ramon, an Olmert confidant, told Army Radio. The station interpreted his comments as meaning Mashaal was a target for assassination.

Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched attempt in Jordan in 1997. Two Mossad agents injected Mashaal with poison but were caught. As Mashaal lay dying in a Jordanian hospital, King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote in return for releasing the Mossad agents.

Ramon told Israel Radio in a separate interview that he believed diplomacy had run its course.

Abbas deplored the Israeli invasion, calling it "collective punishment and a crime against humanity," according to a statement.

Abbas urged the United States and international negotiators to intervene to halt the operation.

An aide said Abbas called Syrian President Bashar Assad to ask him to persuade Mashaal to free the soldier. Assad promised to do so, the aide said on condition of anonymity because he was discussing private talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer of Hamas said his government, too, was trying to resolve the situation diplomatically, but he would not say whether that involved direct contact with Israel.

"We call for an immediate halt to the invasion, and urge that the soldier's life be spared," Shaer said.

The normally bustling streets in southern Gaza, where the invasion was launched, were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt — Gaza's main link to the outside world — has been closed since Sunday's attack. Usually, there is some activity in the area, even when the passage is closed, but Wednesday it was empty.

Israeli troops, backed by tanks, took over the Gaza airport. Dozens of people living near the airport left their homes, seeking sanctuary in nearby Rafah.

A small grocery near the airport was open, but no one was inside except the owner, 45-year-old Allah Abu Jazr.

"All options are open, but let's hope this crisis will pass," Abu Jazr said. "We want the soldier to return home, just as we want our prisoners to come home."

Militants said they fired rockets early Wednesday at the Israeli village of Nahal Oz, the Israeli forces' staging area, and at other Israeli targets.

Dallal said the army was prepared for a long operation, and "everything is on the table."

Trying to defuse tensions, Hamas negotiators said Tuesday they had accepted a document that Abbas allies say implicitly recognizes Israel. But Mashaal's No. 2, Moussa Abu Marzouk, denied a final deal was reached.

Shalit's abduction has threatened to turn devastated relations between Israel and the Hamas-led government into all-out war. Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January and has been under international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Complicating matters was a new claim by the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday's assault, that it had also kidnapped a Jewish settler, 18-year-old Eliahu Asheri, in the West Bank.

Outside a Gaza City mosque, PRC militants displayed what they said was a copy of Asheri's identification card and reiterated threats to kill him if Israel did not end its Gaza invasion.

A group spokesman also warned that the PRC had just begun its campaign to seize soldiers.

"The operation of kidnapping soldiers has started and is in a countdown," Mohammed Abdel Al said.

Update:

Hamas praises abduction but denies role