Israel has threatened to restrict trade across its frontier with Gaza if the Palestinians fail to immediately address its security concerns at the newly reopened border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday that Israel wouldn't strangle the already impoverished Gaza economically, but that "the Palestinians need to take action."
The threat to further batter Gaza's already shattered economy was made on Friday at a meeting between Israeli officials and international mediators. The Associated Press obtained notes of the session.
The US, at a separate meeting, said the security problems were caused by technical glitches at the Rafah passage between Gaza and Egypt, and not by Palestinian failures.
In a deal wrested last month under pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel agreed to the reopening of the Rafah crossing, which it closed before quitting Gaza in September.
The agreement also called for a bus link between the non-contiguous Gaza and the West Bank, and for increased cargo traffic by the end of the year at the Karni terminal on the Gaza-Israel frontier, which is Gaza's main export outlet.
Israel said on Friday it was freezing implementation of the entire agreement until its problems with the Rafah terminal, which reopened Nov. 26 under the supervision of European monitors, were resolved.
Israel has accused the Palestinians of violating the deal by not providing instant information on people crossing the border from Egypt into Gaza. As a result, up to 15 militants wanted by Israel, including the brother of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, were allowed in, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
"This crossing is wide open to terrorists and weapons, and jeopardizes Israel's security," Mofaz told Israel Radio.
He said he asked US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch in their meeting on Friday "to do everything in his power in his meetings with the Palestinians so the issue can be settled next week."
Welch was scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday.
US officials told international mediators in a separate meeting on Friday that the Palestinians were complying with the Rafah agreement and that any delay in relaying information was the result of technological problems that US experts were trying to resolve, according to notes of that meeting.
The chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the Israeli threat, saying the Palestinians were working to address all issues at Rafah as quickly as possible with the help of the European monitors.
"The Rafah terminal has been functioning for two weeks only, and anybody with a sane mind should not expect the border between Germany and France," he said, adding that the Europeans and not Israel should be the judges of Palestinian compliance with the agreement.
In other news yesterday, Abbas urged militant factions to extend their informal truce with Israel, known as "the calm," which is to expire at the end of the year.
The ceasefire, brokered in February, sharply reduced violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We should move ahead with this calm until security and stability have been reached in the homeland, until our people feel no fear from the threat of tanks and aircraft," Abbas said at a ceremony in Gaza City, where Palestinians laid the ground for a US-funded courts complex.
On Friday, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said the militant group would not renew its truce with Israel because the Israelis had violated it.
The Palestinian Authority said Mashaal's statement appeared to be an attempt to sabotage Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 25, in which Hamas is challenging Abbas' Fatah Party.
In other news, an Israeli naval boat patrolling the Gaza coast shot and killed one Palestinian in the waters near the Egyptian border, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The army said two men were swimming over from Egypt with bags of weapons. When they refused to halt, the Israelis fired, killing one of the men.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not