Hamas: Israeli move “a declaration of war”

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel suspended formal security ties to
the Palestinian government on Monday in what Hamas said
amounted to “a declaration of war.”

European Union foreign ministers added to U.S. and Israeli
pressure on the Islamic militant group by approving a temporary
halt in direct EU aid to the new government.

Thousands of Palestinians poured onto the streets of Gaza,
protesting Western aid cuts and a spike in Israeli military
strikes since election victor Hamas took control of the
Palestinian Authority in late March.

An Israeli shell killed a young Palestinian girl and
injured 12 others, including five children, when it hit a house
in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

Israel says the shelling in Gaza is meant to combat rocket
attacks by militants.

Avi Dichter, a top adviser to interim Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, told Israel Radio that a ground assault
of Gaza could not be ruled out.

“We have done it in the past and can do so in the present,”
said Dichter, a former secret intelligence chief who may be
appointed to a senior security post in Olmert’s new cabinet.

In statements issued in quick succession on Monday,
President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas denounced Israel for branding
the Palestinian Authority a “hostile entity.”

Mahmoud al-Zahar, foreign minister in the new Hamas
government who has a reputation as a hard-liner, said in a
statement that the European Union decision was “unacceptable”
and “collective punishment against the Palestinian people.”

Zahar added that the Palestinian people would not succumb
to the international pressure and would remain committed to
their goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state
with Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that
Israel’s decision to sever contacts with the Palestinian
Authority constituted “a declaration of war and a failed
attempt to cause internal divisions among Palestinians.”

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said Israel’s
position “completely violates the agreements we have signed
with them and violates international law.”

“We demand from this Israeli government to stop such
measures,” said Abbas, whose Fatah faction was crushed by Hamas
in an election in January.

COOPERATION SUSPENDED

Having ruled out contacts with the Hamas-led Palestinian
Authority, the Israeli army moved on Monday to suspend
remaining security coordination.

At a joint coordination office near the West Bank city of
Jericho, Palestinian Colonel Khaled Ziyar and his men piled
their belongings on to a pick-up truck and turned keys to the
facility over to the Israelis.

Before they drove away, the Palestinian officers took down
posters of Abbas and a Palestinian flag.

The Jericho district coordination office, located on the
outskirts of the ancient town, was the last security facility
to be manned by both Israelis and Palestinians. In other parts
of the West Bank, cooperation was done by telephone.

As part of its new policy, Israel blocked Brigadier General
Ala Hosni, who heads the Gaza police, and several other
officials from moving between Gaza and the West Bank.

Many Palestinians who lined up to get travel permits at
civil administration offices in the West Bank were turned away,
witnesses said.

At an earlier protest, Palestinian children threw eggs at
U.N. offices in Gaza.

Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel but has largely abided by
a year-old ceasefire that other militant groups have ignored.

Israel and the United States have vowed not to deal with
Hamas unless it recognizes the Jewish state’s right to exist,
renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals. Hamas says
talks with Israel would be futile.

Israel has halted the transfer of tax revenues to the
Palestinian Authority, but it said it would allow the funds to
be used to pay the authority’s debts to Israeli utilities.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah; Allyn
Fisher-Ilan and Adam Entous in Jerusalem)