GAZA CITY, Nov 19: Israel's air force cancelled a planned raid on the home of a Gaza militant on Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an Israeli military spokesman and witnesses said.
Hours after the ‘human shield’ protest, an Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Hamas militants on a crowded Gaza City street. Hospital officials said an elderly passerby died of his wounds after being hit in the strike.
Medical workers said the two men in the vehicle and two other passersby were wounded.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by phone and urged him to take steps to stop militants firing rockets into Israel, a defence ministry spokeswoman said.
“The defence minister told (Abbas) Israel will not tolerate continued rocket fire,” she said, adding they would speak again.
A senior Palestinian official said Mr Abbas had called for a `mutual ceasefire’ in Gaza and the West Bank. Mr Peretz, the official said, told Mr Abbas: “There will be no ceasefire as long as rockets fall on our cities and towns.”
Mr Peretz and Mr Abbas last spoke in October.
Israel has stepped up attacks in northern Gaza since a Palestinian rocket strike killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the Israeli town of Sderot on Friday.
Israel had issued a warning to the family of a militant of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Jabalya refugee camp to evacuate their home because it would be bombed, the spokesman and Palestinian witnesses said.
The PRC is one of several militant groups behind daily rocket attacks from Gaza against southern Israel.
Hundreds of neighbours and protesters gathered at the site, many barricading themselves inside the house, witnesses said.
“Death to America and death to Israel,” the crowd chanted.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid had been called off because of the gathering.
“We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists,” the spokesman said, vowing Israel would continue its strikes against militants and accusing militants of using civilians in Jabalya as human shields.
UNITY GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh visited Jabalya and called the protest a message to the UN Security Council, where the United States on Nov 12 vetoed a resolution condemning Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Turning to the formation of a unity government, he said Hamas's participation hinged on securing guarantees that western economic sanctions would end once a new administration of technocrats was in place.
Addressing his cabinet in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described such a government of non-political professionals as ‘make-believe’, a senior Israeli official said.—Reuters
