Israel seals off Palestinian territories until after polls: report
AL QUDS, Jan 26: Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday ordered all the Palestinian territories to be sealed off from Israel until after Tuesday’s general elections, Israeli public radio said.
Mofaz made the announcement at a weekly cabinet meeting held just hours after his troops staged their deepest raid into the centre of Gaza City, which is still under Palestinian control, killing 12 Palestinians in a bid to smash workshops making rockets used against Israel.
Mofaz, the military chief of staff until last July, said there were “numerous alerts about attempts by Palestinians to derail the holding of the elections,” the radio said.
He said a curfew would be imposed on the territories if necessary and told ministers that 25,000 soldiers and police were to deploy across Israel to ensure security during the elections.
Gaza-based Palestinian militants fired a home-made rocket at southern Israel Sunday morning, just hours after the deepest Israeli raid into Gaza City in almost a decade, police sources said.
Hours later, Israeli forces discovered more rockets primed for firing in the same direction, despite the Gaza raid and other operations aimed at stopping the attacks.
The Qassem rocket was fired from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, just north of Gaza City, after Israeli forces stormed into the area in retaliation to the firing of seven rockets across the border Friday by the armed wing of the radical Islamic group Hamas, which caused no injuries.
The rocket fired on Sunday morning hit an area of empty land in southern Israel, police said.
The army initially responded to Friday’s rocket attacks by destroying four road bridges leading into Beit Hanoun from Gaza City to isolate the town.
Palestinian security officials said that several tanks and bulldozers returned to Beit Hanoun Sunday after the rocket was fired and opened fire to warn off Palestinians trying to carry out repairs on the damaged bridges.
Two people were injured, they said.
And Israeli military sources said that troops scouring the area had found seven more rockets and launchers hidden in an orchard, ready to be fired.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement the residents of Sderot, which was the target of Friday’s attack, should “leave your town or hide in the shelters. Our fighters will hit any time during incursions or tank shelling.”
To back up its threats, three more rockets blasted off in the afternoon toward Sderot, landing near the town but causing no damage or casualties, police said.
Qassam rockets are home-made Katyusha-type rockets fired blind at a target, with a range of around eight kilometres and armed with a warhead of five kilos of explosives.
They have yet to cause any serious casualties.
REOCCUPYING GAZA: Israel is considering reoccupying the Gaza Strip and the government would decide when the best time for the move was, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Sunday.
He made the comments the morning after Israel sent a massive force into Gaza city.
Palestinians said 13 people were killed and at least 65 wounded in the raid. They added that the force demolished the homes of three members of the Islamic militant Hamas movement, and destroyed dozens of metal workshops.
Mofaz said the Israeli force destroyed 40 arms workshops in the city. The Israeli force withdrew early Sunday.
The Gaza city raid was the second Israeli incursion into the Strip over the weekend. Troops destroyed four bridges in the northern Strip town of Beit Hanoun, after Islamic militants in that area fired 10 Qassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, which lies close to the Gaza border.—AFP/dpa
