Israel struck at the heart of the Palestinian government on Sunday, hitting the Gaza office of the Hamas prime minister in a new wave of night-time air raids, ratcheting up the pressure to rescue an Israeli soldier captured by militants a week ago.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who was not in his office at the time, condemned the attack, which set his office ablaze in a dramatic warning to the Hamas administration following multiple Israeli threats against the leadership.
“It’s an attack against a Palestinian symbol. We ask the international community and the Arab League to take its responsibilities towards our people and intervene” to end what he called Israel’s “insane policy”, he said.
The fifth straight night of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip followed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s insistence that mediation efforts to free the captured soldier were continuing despite reports that talks had stalled.
“Things have not reached an impasse and efforts continue to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties and resolve the issue of the prisoner in exchange for some things,” Abbas, a member of the rival Fatah faction, told reporters in Gaza City.
“The coming hours will be sensitive and dangerous. Efforts continue but until now no satisfactory solution has been reached.”
Israel has rejected outright the demands of the militant groups, which seized 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit in a deadly attack on an army post on the Gaza-Israel border on June 25.
And United States President George Bush also urged the release of the soldier, saying it was a “key” first step to ending the crisis.
The three groups, including the armed wing of Hamas, had issued new demands on Saturday for the release of 1 000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Witnesses said at least one missile struck Haniya’s office shortly before 2am local time, sparking a blaze swiftly doused by a team of Palestinian firefighters.
A second near-simultaneous air strike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya killed a member of the armed wing of Haniya’s Hamas movement and wounded another, in a fifth straight night of Israeli air raids on Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to target Haniya following the capture of Shalit, which has triggered the worst crisis since the Hamas-led government took office in March after a shock election win.
The Israeli military confirmed it carried out an air strike on Haniya’s office and another two targeting Hamas infrastructure in Gaza.
“The IDF [Israeli army] holds the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government responsible for the recent attack on the soldier and his fate,” a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
“The IDF will continue to employ all means at its disposal against Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to allow the unconditional return of Corporal Gilad Shalit.”
The Israeli military confirmed another two air strikes against Hamas outposts in the Gaza refugee camp of Jabaliya where “several terrorists were present at the time planning terrorist attacks against Israel”.
A Palestinian security official said one of the attacks targeted a school run by the Islamist movement, which operates a social welfare wing in the impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military denied a school was hit.
A senior official from Abbas’s office had warned on Saturday that Haniya’s life could be on the line if a solution were not reached soon allowing the release of the corporal.
“His life is at risk if the Palestinian groups do not free the Israeli soldier,” a high-ranking official had told AFP on condition of anonymity. “There are Israeli threats against Ismail Haniya through the media.”
Israel this week detained scores of Hamas members, including ministers and lawmakers, and revoked the Jerusalem residency of four others, threatening further action if Shalit were not released.
With the threat of a full-scale Israeli ground offensive looming, already impoverished residents of the Gaza Strip are grappling with shortages of food, fuel and electricity.
Besides the air strikes, gunboats and ground forces on Saturday fired several-hundred artillery rounds at Gaza, although Israel has held off from sending in more troops from the north to allow for the continuation of diplomatic efforts.
About 5 000 troops and columns of Israeli tanks are poised on the Gaza border in the largest Israeli military operation since it pulled out of the tiny coastal territory last September, ending a 38-year-occupation.
Israel, which had warned of “extreme measures” to secure the release of the army officer, rejected new demands issued by the militants holding Shalit.
“Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been clear on this point. There will be no negotiations with the kidnappers. If Gilad Shalit is not freed, Israel will do what it necessary,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said.
The Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of Hamas and the previously unknown Army of Islam said they were seeking the release of “1 000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners”.
The statement did not explicitly say the releases were conditions for securing the freedom of Shalit, who a Palestinian official said had sustained three bullet wounds but had received medical treatment.
It said all detained Palestinian militant leaders as well as elderly and sick detainees should be freed and reiterated an earlier demand for the release of women and juvenile prisoners.
The international community has issued urgent appeals for restraint on both sides to ensure the crisis does not spread across the region, while Bush said: “the initial goal should be freeing the Israeli soldier; that is the key to ending the crisis.” — AFP