Mubarak to Olmert: Cease Gaza strikes, lift siege
Egyptian president telephones prime minister, warns of deteriorating humanitarian situation resulting from blockade imposed on Strip. Olmert: We won't allow for humanitarian crisis in Gaza
In a telephone call to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mubarak "stressed the need to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," MENA said.
Olmert met Monday with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and assured him that Israel would not allow for a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
He added, however, that "Hamas is aggravating the crisis in Gaza in order to direct international pressure at Israel."
The prime minister told the Dutch minister that Israel was under "daily terror attacks from the Gaza Strip, with 75% of the children in the Gaza vicinity communities suffering from anxiety."
According to Olmert, "The Palestinians even attacked the Rothenberg Power Station in Ashkelon, which supplies their electricity.
"Israel does not wish to use similar means and use non-discriminating fire which will hurt innocent people," the prime minister said, "but we will not allow them to fire on Israeli cities and disrupt the lives of thousands of citizens while life goes on there as usual."
Livni: No 'busines as usual' in Gaza
The Dutch minister later toured Sderot along with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who said that "if business here is not as usual, business in Gaza will not be as usual as well. Hamas control the height of the flames."
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued telegrams to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Quartet and the Arab League in which he called on Israel to lift the siege it is imposing on the Gaza Strip and renew the supply of fuel to the Hamas-controlled coastal territory "to allow hospitals to operate and prevent a humanitarian disaster."
The Gaza Strip, where most of the 1.5 million residents depend on aid, has been sealed off since Thursday when Israel closed all crossing points into the territory in response to continued rocket attacks.
According to the Palestinians, Gaza's power station ceased its operations Sunday evening after Israel stopped supplying fuel to the Strip. Israeli officials, on the other hand, claimed that the power supply to Gaza continued as usual.
Television crews and reporters were invited to witness the cessation in the station's operation. Minutes later, Gaza's residents holding candles began marching through the city's streets along Palestinian children holding signs in English and Arabic. In Ramallah hundreds held a candlelit demonstration in solidarity.
Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain warned that the fuel cutoff would cause a health catastrophe. ''We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms,'' he said.
Clashes between the army and Gaza militants sharply escalated after an Israeli operation killed 19 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, on Tuesday in the deadliest single day in Gaza in more than a year.
Since then, Israeli raids have killed 37 people, most of them militants, and gunmen have launched some 200 rockets or mortar rounds into Israel, wounding at least 10 people.
