Haaretz
Tamuz 6, 5766
An Israel Air
Force attack helicopter launched a missile before dawn Sunday striking the
office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City. Neither
Haniyeh, nor any of his aides, were in the vicinity at the time of the
bombing, however damage was done to the building.
Israel Radio
reported that the structure burst into flames, and firefighters rushed to
the scene shortly after the attack to extinguish the fire.
The
attack was similar to Israel's strike against the Palestinian public
security minister - who, like Haniyeh, is a member of Hamas - two days
ago.
The strike on Haniyeh's office indicates a desire by Israel to
heighten pressure on Hamas in order to yield the release of abducted
Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
Defense Minister Amir
Peretz told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday that
Syrian President Bashar Assad to influence Hamas political bureau chief
Khaled Meshal to bring about Shalit's release.
Peretz met with
senior IDF and Shin Bet security service officials on Saturday evening
regarding Shalit.
Shalit was abducted Sunday morning in an attack
on his IDF post near the Gaza border. Two IDF soldiers were killed in the
attack.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday
he was confident an agreement could be reached to end the crisis with
Israel and free Shalit.
"Regarding the soldier, we will surely
reach an agreement. It is not a dead end. People want an acceptable
solution," Abbas told reporters.
"Israel as a matter of principal
does not accept reciprocity. Maybe there will be another formula that
won't be turned back," Abbas said.
Abbas said he is worried that
Israel will proceed with its threats for a more extensive offensive in
Gaza.
"I am afraid that what is to come is going to be dangerous
because we can't bear another serious aggression and another occupation.
What is to come may be more difficult," he said. "What is important is to
protect national unity. To protect our people and to avoid bringing danger
and disaster to the nation."
A statement released by Abbas' office
earlier Saturday said mediation efforts by Egypt and other countries to
resolve the crisis over Shalit had yet to bear fruit mainly because it was
unclear who in Hamas - the militants or the group's leadership abroad -
was authorized to make decisions about Shalit's fate. Abbas later said
that the statement should not be attributed to him.
Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, apparently has no say in the matter,
according to a statement from Abbas' office.
"The next hours are
critical, sensitive and serious. And though the efforts are still ongoing,
we have not reached an acceptable solution until now," Abbas' office said
in a separate statement.
"After a week of continuous and long
contacts with all parties, Palestinian, Arab, international and
particularly Egyptian, the [Abbas] ... is still exerting efforts to stop
the Israeli aggression and avoid more disasters for the Palestinian
people," the statement said.
Abbas also appealed to all parties to
work to find "an acceptable solution" to the crisis.
Israel said
Saturday that it rejects a demand by the three Palestinian militant groups
holding Shalit to free 1,000 security prisoners being held in its jails
and end the IDF offensive launched in Gaza in the wake of his
kidnap.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian deputy minister said Saturday that
Shalit has received medical treatment for wounds sustained during his
abduction and that he is in stable condition.
Speaking at a news
conference in Ramallah, Deputy Minister for Prisoner Affairs Ziad Abu Ein
cited unidentified "mediators" as telling him that Shalit had been wounded
during his abduction.
"He has three wounds," Abu Ein said. "I guess
shrapnel wounds." He did not give further details.
But Abu Ein
told Haaretz later Saturday that he had simply been quoting media reports
and had not received any new information.
Channel 1 television,
citing a senior Israeli security official, reported Friday night that a
Palestinian doctor treated Shalit for minor shoulder and stomach wounds,
and that the soldier was in good condition. Israel Radio said the doctor's
visit took place Thursday.
A statement released overnight Friday by
the three groups did not say explicitly that the soldier would be freed
should their demands be met. But a spokesman for the military wing of the
governing Hamas party, one of the three factions involved in the
kidnapping, said the demands specified in the statement were in fact
conditions for releasing Shalit.
Repeating Israel's refusal to
bargain for Shalit's release, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said
in response to the statement that "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has
reiterated that there will be no deals, that either Shalit will be
released or we will act to bring about his release."
IDF troops entered the southern Gaza Strip in the early
hours of Wednesday, in a bid to pressure the Palestinians to release
Shalit.
The militants' demand Saturday for the release prisoners
was the second statement by the groups since Shalit's abduction. "We are
declaring to the public our just and humanitarian demands," the statement
said.
The statement repeated an earlier demand for the release of
women prisoners and minors in exchange for information on Shalit, but made
the added request for Israel to free 1,000 "Palestinian, Arab and Muslim
prisoners."
It said these would have to include all Palestinian
faction leaders as well as humanitarian cases.
The statement cast
doubt on hopes voiced by mediators that Shalit could be freed
soon.
"In spite of the good efforts of the mediators who tried in
silence to speed up the treatment of this humanitarian matter, the enemy
and their political leadership are still under the pressure of the
security and military command," it said.
"The escalation and
arrogance mean the enemy will be responsible for the bad consequences," it
said.
Strikes across Gaza
Meanwhile, the Israel Air Force
attacked several sites late Friday and early Saturday in the latest round
of raids across the Gaza Strip. There were no casualties in any of the
incidents, Palestinian medical workers said. (Click here
for a map of Gaza)
The attacks were on what the IDF called a
"terrorist training facility" in the south of the Strip, and on a building
in Gaza City which Palestinians said was used by Hamas militants.
The military confirmed attacking a Hamas facility in Gaza and a
former Israeli settlement near Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, which
was abandoned in last year's Israeli withdrawal and taken over by
militants.
Palestinians said the new occupants, activists of the
Abu Rish Brigades,
loosely affiliated with Palestinian Authority
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, recently evacuated the complex, fearing
just such a strike.
The military could not confirm reports of a
missile landing on open ground near the southern town of Khan Yunis.
Also early Saturday, IAF aircraft reportedly hit a Hamas training
facility in central Gaza. There were no injuries, but the building was set
on fire, Palestinian officials said. The IDF said it was looking into the
claim.
Earlier Friday evening, three Palestinians were hurt in an
IAF strike in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.
According to witnesses, an IAF missile was fired and landed adjacent to a
vehicle in Gaza City.
The IDF said the strike targeted an Islamic
Jihad Qassam rocket-launching cell. Palestinian sources said four
militants were in the vehicle at the time of the strike. Three managed to
flee.
Qassam lands hundreds of meters from Ashkelon
Also
Friday, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed within hundreds
of meters of Ashkelon, in what police said was the closest a Qassam strike
has come to the southern city.
Police confirmed that the rocket was
an improved version of the Qassam. No injuries were reported in the
incident.
Early Friday, the IAF struck the Palestinian Interior
Ministry in downtown Gaza City, Palestinian witnesses said, setting it on
fire. There was no word of casualties.
The Interior Ministry is
nominally in charge of Palestinian security forces, though Abbas removed
most of its authority.
The IDF confirmed its planes hit the office
of Interior Minister Saeed Siyam, which it called "a meeting place to plan
and direct terror activity."
A Palestinian militant injured in the
strike died of his wounds early Friday, the first fatality in the IDF
incursion in Gaza, hospital officials said. The local leader of Islamic
Jihad, Mohammed Abdel Al, 25, had been seriously wounded in an air strike
in Rafah in southern Gaza.
Three Fatah militants said they were
wounded early Friday in a gun battle with IDF forces in northern Gaza,
while the army denied troops had entered or fired into the territory,
where forces have been massing.
Palestinian hospital officials said
a 5-year-old girl was wounded in an air strike in northern Gaza early
Friday. Doctors said her condition was not serious.
On Thursday
night, IDF artillery shells hit the electricity distribution network in
the northern Gaza Strip, plunging parts of the area into
darkness.
Palestinian officials said two power transformers were
struck, and two security officers were wounded by shrapnel. Dr. Ali Mousa,
director of the Abu Yousef al-Najar Hospital in Rafah, also said a
15-year-old boy was moderately wounded by shrapnel in the
blast.
The strike came two days after IAF aircraft attacked a major
Gaza City power station, reportedly leaving roughly two-thirds of Gaza's
1.3 million residents without electricity.
The IDF confirmed it
had been firing artillery at open spaces in the area at the time of
Thursday's incident. The army said it has a report of an electrical pole
being hit and was checking if the artillery fire was in any way
related.
According to information gleaned by the PA, Shalit is
being held in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Peretz said
Thursday afternoon that the IDF would sustain its blockade on the Gaza
Strip until Shalit is brought home safely.
Militants killed in
Nablus
In the West Bank, IDF troops Friday shot and killed two
Palestinian militants during a fierce gunbattle in a Nablus cemetery,
Palestinian security officials said.
The soldiers surrounded the
cemetery, trapping four militants inside. Initially, two of the militants
were arrested, one fled and one was killed, the security officials said.
The militants belong to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is tied to
Fatah.
A military source said shooting broke out when troops
entered Nablus on a raid to arrest militants. The troops fired back,
killing the first militant, the IDF said. The second militant was killed
in a exchange of fire which pursued after he had already been arrested by
troops.
