ISRAEL today declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity", clearing the way for it to shut off basic supplies to the Hamas-run territory in revenge for rocket fire, a senior official said.
"Following extensive legal consulations, Israel has decided to declare Gaza as a hostile entity, with all the international implications," the official said after a meeting of Israel's powerful security Cabinet.
"This move will prepare the groundwork for sanctions against Gaza, such as the interruption of gas, electricity and water supply, which will occur in a gradual process," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said the Cabinet did not take any immediate decisions to turn off the taps to the impoverished territory - home to 1.5m Palestinians - but that the move "clears the way for the Government to do so".
The decision was announced just as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the region on a latest mission to kickstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ahead of a US-sponsored conference later this year.
Another Israeli Government official said that the decision would only affect the supplies of fuel and electricity and that water supplies would remain unaffected.
"This is Israel's response to the ongoing Qassams," the second official said, referring to the homemade rockets fired regularly into Israel from the Gaza Strip which are named after the armed wing of Hamas.
"It is meant to be used as leverage on the civilian population to pressure the Hamas regime over the Qassam fire," the official said.
Israeli ministers have for weeks called for a reduction in the supply of the basic utilities to Gaza as a "price tag" for continuing rocket fire from the territory where Hamas seized control three months ago.
Israel, which withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, has been unable to stamp out rocket fire by militants despite waging regular military incursions into the impoverished coastal strip.
Although most of the homemade projectiles launched on nearly a daily basis land in open areas without causing damage, some hit their targets, rendering Israeli communities near Gaza in a state of perpetual shock.
Last week, a rocket smashed in the middle of an Israeli army camp in southern Israel, wounding 69 sleeping soldiers, most of them lightly.
Hamas, a group Israel considers a terror organisation, has over the past week made efforts to curb the rocket fire.
Last Thursday it called on militant groups to stop firing rockets at border crossings with Israel and on Sunday it indirectly suggested that the Islamists and Israel should resume a truce.
Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said that the Government should studyt he possibility of a truce, but that the rocket fire needed to first stop for a period of one to two weeks.
http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=167569If they are allowed to do this and get away with it then what else can they get away with. Oh Thats right! They've allready gotten away with everything illegal and criminal already! doh!
