MIDDLE EAST: Israeli leaders decide against a broad offensive in Gaza to curb cross-border rocket attacks

Israeli leaders decided on Wednesday (September 5) against a broad offensive in Gaza to curb cross-border rocket attacks but did not rule out cutting off Israeli-supplied power to the territory, a government official said. "They have rocketed our homes, our schools our kindergartens and this situation simply cannot go on Israel has an obligation to defend our people and today the government has directed us to explore different options, options designed to protect our people," said Israeli foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Palestinian militants regularly fire Qassam rockets into Israel from Gaza. An explosion near a kindergarten in the Israeli town of Sderot this week rekindled calls for reprisals. Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said: "Palestinians will understand we cannot sit still while they are shelling our children schools and kindergartens or citizens who did nothing against them and no country in the world would suffer it. In my opinion the actions of the army should be upgraded according to the number of shelling that they are doing from their side." He added: "they have to understand there is a price". As the meeting took place dozens of angry residents of Sderot, the southern Israeli town often targeted by Palestinian rockets from across the border in Gaza staged a protest outside the prime minister's office in Jerusalem and demanded the government to do its utmost to halt the attacks. Elsewhere, near the Gaza border, Israeli soldiers operating inside the strip recovered several makeshift rocket launchers and moved them into Israel, the military said. Speaking after the security session, a government official said Defence Minister Ehud Barak recommended "pinpointed" attacks against militants rather than embarking on a large-scale invasion of Gaza, controlled since June by Hamas Islamists. A massive Israeli offensive, some security cabinet members cautioned before the meeting, could cause heavy Israeli and Palestinian casualties and complicate plans for a U.S.-proposed Middle East peace conference expected in November. According to Israeli and Palestinian officials, Gaza's population uses about 200 megawatts of electricity, out of which 120 are provided directly from Israeli power lines, 17 are delivered from Egypt and 65 are produced at a plant in Gaza. Asked about the rocket attacks, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel could "send a message to Hamas" -- the Islamist group which seized control of Gaza from secular rivals Fatah in June -- without provoking a humanitarian crisis. "Life cannot continue normally (in Gaza). Even if we are unable to prevent completely the firing of Qassams, I think there are things a country is obliged to do," she said at a news conference with her Italian counterpart Massimo D'alema. Director of UNRWA John Jing told reporters in Gaza City: "On the issue of preparing for a massive Israeli incursion in to Gaza I can only appeal that it not happen. The ordinary, decent people of Gaza have suffered enough so let's find another solution to the problem." Militants in the Gaza Strip, home to some 1.5 million Palestinians, say they have a right to fire rockets as part of their resistance to Israeli occupation. Israel pulled settlers and troops out of the territory in 2005 in a withdrawal that Palestinians do not consider an end to occupation because Israeli authorities still control Gaza's borders, its airspace and coastal waters.

ITN Source | September 6, 2007

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