BICOM

International reaction to the situation in Gaza

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said after meetings in Cairo on Sunday that the Islamist group Hamas could have avoided the Israeli attacks on Gaza. “We talked to them and we told them ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop’ so that we could have avoided what happened,” he said in Cairo according to Reuters.
• In Egypt, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said that Hamas must bear responsibility for ignoring its warnings by not resuming the ceasefire. He has also blamed Hamas for not allowing wounded from Gaza to seek treatment in Egypt. “The wounded are barred from crossing” he said, blaming “those who control Gaza. We are waiting for the wounded to cross.”
• Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following Israeli operations on 27 December: “I promise you on behalf of the government of Israel that we will make every possible effort to avoid any humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The people in Gaza do not deserve to suffer because of the killers and murderers of the terrorist organisation.”
• The UN Security Council Resolution released a statement which expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all violence.
• Hamas’ top leader, Khaled Meshal In Damascus, Syria, called on Palestinians to rekindle their fight against Israel. “This is the time for a third Intifada,” he said.

Situation on the ground

• Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip extended the range of their rocket attacks on Sunday morning, hitting the port city of Ashdod, with a population of over 200,000, at a distance of around thirty kilometres. Israel’s second largest power plant is located in the city. Ashkelon was also hit again. 500,000 Israeli citizens living within 40 kilometres of Gaza, including the major southern city of Beersheva (population close to 200,000), are on alert, with citizens told to stay close to secure structures. Reopening of schools in the area close to Gaza will be delayed. The number of rockets fired today is relatively low compared to yesterday, indicating the initial success of Israel’s operation. An Israeli man was killed on Saturday when a missile hit a house in Netivot.
• The IDF continued their attacks on Sunday. Palestinian media appeared to confirm Israeli claims that most of those killed on Saturday were militants. The fatalities included three senior Hamas officers: Tawfik Jabber, the commander of Hamas’ police force in Gaza; his adjutant, Ismail al-Ja’abri, commander of the defense and security directorate; and Abu-Ahmad Ashur, Hamas’ Gaza central district governor. The main targets hit on Saturday were command centres, training camps, various Hamas installations, rocket manufacturing facilities, storage warehouses and underground launching sites.
• Late Saturday, thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language voice mails on their phones from the IDF, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons.
• Israeli infantry and tanks have gathered on the border early Sunday in preparation for a possible ground invasion, and reserves are being called up over the next few days.
• Defense Minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, ordered the Keren Shalom crossing to Gaza opened to allow in 30 trucks of medical supplies and basic humanitarian aid.

Latest Statistics:

• Israel withdrew all military and civilian presence from Gaza in August 2005. Since then, more than 5000 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian neighbourhoods. In the first four months of 2008, the rate of rocket attacks was one every three hours.
• Since 2004, 92% of Sderot residents (a town of 20,000 inhabitants) have experienced a Qassam rocket falling on their or an adjacent street.17 Israelis have been killed by Qassam rockets and hundreds have been injured and maimed. Israeli civilians have 15 seconds of warning period before the rocket strikes.
• The recent escalation is the result of Hamas’s decision to renew attacks even before the 6 month ceasefire was due to end on 19 December. Since then, Israel refrained from military actions and continued talks with Egypt to broker understandings for a return to calm. Hamas rejected diplomacy and chose to deliberately escalate the situation with more and longer range rockets. In the past week over 190 rockets, missiles and mortar rounds were fired from Gaza. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza have used the ceasefire declared in June to rearm with Iranian weapons and training. They can call on 15,000-20,000 men.
• On Friday, Israel allowed approximately 90 trucks of medicine, fuel, and other vital goods into Gaza. The shipment included more than 500,000 litres of fuel and 200 tons of natural gas.
• Hamas are opposed to the peace process being conducted between Israel and the Palestinian moderates under Mahmoud Abbas and are committed to the destruction of Israel.

Hamas have held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit hostage since June 2006.

Humanitarian situation in Gaza

• Prior to Hamas’s escalation of rocket fire in November, Israel was providing close to 4000 trucks of aid a month to Gaza, along with fuel and electricity despite the ongoing attacks on Israel.
• Close to 9,000 Gazans received permits to enter Israel for medical treatment in the first half of 2008, a considerable increase on previous years.
• Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Programme in Gaza, has denied that there is a humanitarian crisis. In December, he told Canada’s Globe and Mail, that, “This is not a humanitarian crisis… It’s an economic crisis, a political crisis, but it’s not a humanitarian crisis. People aren’t starving.”

Further Information

• For a fuller background briefing on issues of humanitarian access and terrorism in Gaza, click here.
• For links to the latest BICOM’s Analysis, click here