Israel moved to reinforce its measures against the new Hamas-led Palestinian government, declaring it a "hostile entity" and ruling out contacts, including peace talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Sunday declaration by the Israeli Security Cabinet rejected the idea of using Abbas to bypass the new government and boosted acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to impose a border in the West Bank by 2010.
The recommendation came amid increasing Israeli military pressure on Hamas in response to Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.
PHOTO: AP
Israeli forces pounded suspected launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip with artillery fire on Sunday, killing a Palestinian police officer and wounding 16 other people. The Palestinian government called an emergency meeting to discuss the growing tensions.
Israel has refused to deal with Hamas, demanding that it halt violence, recognize Israel and accept previous interim peace agreements. Israel has also suspended the transfer of US$55 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians, dealing a tough blow to the cash-strapped Palestinian government.
Hamas has rejected the ultimatum, despite intense international pressure and a growing financial crisis, though some leaders have hinted at a readiness to moderate.
In a statement, Israel's Security Cabinet, made up of senior ministers, said there will be "no personal boycott" of Abbas, but rejected any substantive negotiations with the Palestinian leader.
Government spokesman Asaf Shariv said relations with Abbas would be limited, and peace talks were out of the question. The recommendations were to be approved by the full Cabinet next Sunday, he said.
"The Palestinian Authority is one unit and does not have two heads," the statement said, adding that Israel will work to undermine the Palestinian government. It also said Israel will boycott diplomats who have contact with Hamas.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, said Israel should negotiate with Abbas, who is the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), because Israel signed its agreements with the PLO. Abu Rdeneh said Israel should not "look for any pretext for escaping from the negotiating table."
The policy could give more momentum to Olmert, who plans to draw a border in the West Bank unilaterally by 2010 if he believes a peace accord is impossible.
Under Olmert's plan, Israel would withdraw from large parts of the West Bank, but retain and strengthen major settlement blocs. The plan would fall far short of Palestinian claims to all of the area.
Speaking to Kadima activists on Sunday evening, Olmert said, "We want this government to be able to fulfill within the coming four years the obligations it took on itself in the political and security areas ... to bring Israel to a safe refuge of peace and final borders."
Meanwhile, Israel will allow a portion of the tax revenues it withholds from the Palestinian Authority to be used to pay Palestinian debts to Israeli utility companies, Israeli officials said yesterday.
The Israeli government decided in February to halt tax revenue transfers, estimated at US$50 million to US$60 million per month, to the Palestinian Authority to isolate Hamas after its election victory in January.
Collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians, the money was used by the Authority to pay salaries and other expenses.
Hamas officials have said in recent days that the government's treasury is empty and that it is unclear when it will be able to pay salaries to 140,000 employees.
"As much as we don't want to see money transferred to the Palestinian budget now controlled by Hamas, we want to make every effort to make sure that vital humanitarian services continue," said Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev.
Under a revised Israeli decision, taken by Olmert's cabinet, a portion of the tax revenues can now be used to cover Palestinian Authority debts to Israeli electric and water companies as well as to hospitals.
The money can also be used to pay outstanding Palestinian bills to Israeli fuels firm Dor Alon.
A senior Palestinian official said Hamas Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razeq met Abbas on Sunday and asked him to help come up with US$10 million to pay Dor Alon's bill to avert a petrol crisis.
Dor Alon, sole supplier of petrol and cooking gas to the Palestinian Authority, briefly cut off fuel supplies to the Authority over an unpaid bill in February.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS