Israel closed border crossings with the Gaza Strip and destroyed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry on Friday in what witnesses said was an air strike, stepping up what it says is a campaign to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.
The four-storey ministry complex in Gaza City was empty at the time, but one woman was killed and at least 30 others nearby were wounded in a large explosion, medical officials said.
It was the first Israeli strike against a government building since Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel’s stepped-up campaign in the coastal territory has prompted the Palestinians to caution that peace talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, spurred by a visit by United States President George Bush, were in jeopardy.
Israel has killed more than 30 Palestinians in Gaza since Monday. The Israeli army says it is targeting Gaza militants who have fired more than 110 rockets into the Jewish state in the past three days alone.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli troops killed a militant linked to Abbas’s Fatah movement.
The Israeli Defence Ministry said on Friday it had ordered all border crossings with Gaza closed, preventing the delivery of a United Nations aid shipment. Only humanitarian cases that receive Defence Minister Ehud Barak’s personal approval would be allowed through, it said.
”If milk is low in Gaza, the minister will be asked to approve a milk shipment, and it will enter,” a Defence Ministry spokesperson said.
Gaza is home to 1,5-million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid.
”Gaza is completely shut down. This will only add to an already dire situation,” said Christopher Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides food to refugees.
Israel has imposed strict curbs on non-humanitarian supplies to Gaza since Hamas’s takeover in June. — Reuters