Israel locks down Gaza

Israeli military vehicles are seen during an incursion at Balata refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Israeli troops killed Ahmed Sanakrah, a local commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group early Friday and arrested three members of the same group, loosely linked to president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party. Photo: AFP

Israel has ordered all border crossings into Gaza temporarily closed, further slashing the flow of vital supplies to the coastal strip in a bid to pressure its Hamas rulers to stop rocket attacks into Israeli towns, defence officials said yesterday.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak's decision was prompted by an escalation of rocket fire following an Israeli anti-rocket raid in Gaza that left 19 Palestinians dead Tuesday, including the son of a prominent Hamas leader.
It was not immediately clear which supplies would not be allowed into strip, said Defence Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror. The territory, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, receives food and humanitarian supplies from Israel and aid organisations.
"It's time that Hamas decide to either fight or take care of its population," Dror said. "It's unacceptable that people in (the southern Israeli town of) Sderot are living in fear every day and people in the Gaza Strip are living life as usual."
The tightening of the blockade could make life more difficult for Gaza's already impoverished residents. Palestinians have suffered shortages of some food, fuel, spare car parts, computer paper and other supplies since Israel imposed the siege after Hamas seized the territory in June.
Dror said Gazans had enough food that no one would go hungry and assured "there will not be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza."
The increasing violence has clouded Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, resumed after a Mideast conference in November sponsored by President Bush. The Israeli operations have drawn condemnations from moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules from the West Bank and is Israel's partner in the peace negotiations.
The United Nations condemned Israel's order.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday appealed to Israel to lift its lockdown of Gaza and open crossings into the impoverished territory where most of the residents depend on food aid.
"It is imperative that these crossings are opened so that the dire situation in Gaza does not deteriorate further, inflicting further misery on one and half million people" who live there, Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told AFP.
"This can only lead to the deterioration of an already dire situation," said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA, the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees. Closing the crossings "can only lead to the further radicalisation of a depressed and demoralised people."
He spoke a day after Israel imposed a shutdown of Gaza amid an escalation of violence around the territory where the Islamist Hamas violently seized power seven months ago.
The rocket attacks persisted Friday, with 10 falling in Israel, police said, including one that hit Ashkelon, a town of 120,000 people. No injuries were reported.
In retaliation, Israeli aircraft fired on rocket launchers in northern Gaza. Hamas security officials said two Palestinians were killed a Hamas militant who had just fired rockets and a 17-year-old civilian who was apparently an onlooker
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Barak's decision was "part of the ongoing Israeli escalation and aggression policy against our people.”