Friday, December 9, 2011

Israel must halt Gaza attacks: Egypt ambassador

Palestinians survey a house damaged by a blast from an Israeli air strike on a nearby Hamas training camp in Gaza City December 9, 2011. Violence across the Israeli-Gaza border escalated on Friday with Israeli air strikes killing at least three people and Palestinian militants firing rockets deep into southern Israel. (Photo:Reuters)

Egypt’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Osman, stated on Friday that Israel is responsible for recent escalations in Gaza. He demanded Israel stop its attacks on the strip immediately so Egyptian efforts to restore calm can succeed.
Osman’s statements came after Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians on Thursday and one on Friday, with 13 injured. 
Osman confirmed to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that Egypt is making efforts to force Israel to end the attacks.
A Hamas spokesman said the initial air strike was a crime and accused Israel of ratcheting up violence in the area.

“We hold the government of the Zionist occupation (Israel) fully responsible for this crime and for the new escalation,” spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

The Israeli military confirmed both air strikes had been carried out. It said the two men killed in the first strike had been planning an attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers along Israel's border with Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

“(They) were affiliated with a terrorist squad that intended to attack Israeli civilians and soldiers via the western border,” an army statement said.

Hamas, an Islamist group sworn to Israel's destruction, has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

The army statement said one of the militants had been involved in planning a suicide bombing in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat in 2007 in which three Israeli civilians were killed.

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