Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided on Monday evening to
slightly ease the siege on Gaza and to allow medical supplies and a
minimal amount of diesel fuel for the power plant in Gaza, local
media reported.
Israel's Defence
Minister Ehud Barak is seen in Herzliya near Tel Aviv January 21,
2008. Israel agreed on Monday evening to slightly ease the siege on
Gaza and to allow medical supplies and a minimal amount of diesel
fuel for the power plant in Gaza.
Barak made the decision following a security assessment made on
Monday evening, the English daily Jerusalem Post reported
on its website.
Barak's decision to ease blockade on the Hamas-run Strip came
after an urgent intervention by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
who had made two separate phone calls with both Barak and Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Barak assured Mubarak that Israel had no interest in the
creation of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza but at the same time
would not allow the Palestinians to fire rockets into southern
Israeli towns, according to the daily.
Palestinians light
candles during a protest against severe fuel cuts, which led to
power cuts, in Gaza January 21, 2008.
While Olmert told Mubarak that Israel will not allow a
humanitarian crisis to erupt in the Gaza Strip, local media
reported.
"We will not allow a humanitarian crisis in the Strip," Olmert
assured the Egyptian president.
Israel on Thursday decided to tighten a siege that has been
imposed on Gaza since mid-June last year, when Hamas took control
of the coastal strip. All crossings leading to Gaza have been
closed down.
Since Thursday, Israel has been barring fuels and basic food
products from reaching the Gaza Strip, in retaliation to ongoing
makeshift rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants from
Gaza against Israel.
In addition, at least 37 Palestinians have been killed since
Israel launched its offensive on Gaza on Tuesday.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)
