Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel blocks goods bound for Gaza
Israel, the transit point for goods entering the Gaza Strip, ordered cargo shipments bound for the Hamas-controlled territory blocked, the Israeli customs authority said in a letter obtained by Reuters yesterday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:37 June 18, 2007
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel, the transit point for goods entering the Gaza Strip, ordered cargo shipments bound for the Hamas-controlled territory blocked, the Israeli customs authority said in a letter obtained by Reuters yesterday.
But officials said shipments to Gaza, an impoverished enclave almost entirely dependent on imports and international aid, may be allowed to go through at a later date. Israel wants to isolate Hamas Islamists - economically, diplomatically and militarily - in the Gaza Strip, while allowing funds and trade to flow to the Western-backed emergency government set up in the occupied West Bank by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Security council dissolved
President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday dissolved the Palestinian "national security council" in which his loyal former Gaza strongman Mohammad Dahlan had been a key figure, an official said..
Fuel supplies resume
The private Israeli company that provides fuel to the Gaza Strip said on Monday it had resumed normal deliveries to the Palestinian territory following a one-day suspension.
"We decided to resume normal deliveries of fuel to the Gaza Strip from today," said a spokeswoman for Dor Alon, the sole firm providing petrol to Gaza.
Israel must help evacuees
Israel should help Palestinians who want to flee the Gaza Strip for the occupied West Bank following Hamas's armed takeover of the impoverished coastal territory, its justice minister said yesterday.
"We should allow residents of Gaza who are looking to flee the terrorism of Hamas get to the West Bank," Daniel Friedman told reporters in occupied Jerusalem.
Iran blasts cabinet
The emergency Palestinian government is anti-democratic, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mahdi Mostafavi said yesterday. "The creation of a Palestinian emergency government is against democracy and accentuates political tensions in occupied Palestine," Mostafavi was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
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