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US envoy calls for end to Hamas weapons smuggling
2009-01-28
JERUSALEM - President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy called Wednesday for an end to Hamas weapons smuggling and a reopening of Gaza's borders, seeking to strengthen the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants thrown into turmoil by new violence. Hours before George Mitchell met with Israeli leaders, warplanes pounded Gaza smuggling tunnels in retaliation for a Palestinian bombing on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier. After talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Mitchell said consolidating the cease-fire is "of critical importance." He said a longer-term truce should be based on "an end to smuggling and reopening of the crossings" into Gaza. Egypt and Israel have kept their borders with Gaza largely closed since Hamas seized control of the territory by force in 2007. Mitchell's tour launches the first Mideast foray of the Obama administration. Obama said his envoy would listen to all sides to then craft a way forward with stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Mitchell said that after finishing his consultations in the region and with Europeans, he will report to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on his conclusions for the next steps. "The United States is committed to vigorously pursuing lasting peace and stability in the region," said Mitchell, who met earlier Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, the first stop on his Mideast tour. He was expected to meet pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Thursday. But Mitchell has no plans to meet with Hamas, which the U.S., Israel and European Union consider a terrorist group. Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007. Its control of the territory of 1.4 million and refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist are major obstacles to peace efforts. The flare-up of violence was the worst since Israel and Hamas separately declared cease-fires on Jan. 18 to end a three-week offensive against the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate forcefully for any violations. Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled a planned trip to Washington this week to deal with the crisis, defense officials said. By Wednesday afternoon, when Mitchell arrived, there were signs the flare-up may have calmed. The Israeli military said it did not carry out any further action in Gaza after airstrikes in the early morning. The soldier was killed Tuesday on Israel's frontier with Gaza by a roadside bomb planted on the Gaza side and set off by remote control, the military said. Three other soldiers patrolling the border were injured. Israel responded swiftly, sending tanks and bulldozers into northern Gaza to plow up the attack site and launching an airstrike that wounded a Hamas militant who the military said "was prominent in the organization accountable for the attack." the military said. Hamas said the Israeli strike injured one of its men as he rode a motorcycle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Airstrikes early Wednesday targeted the network of tunnels used to smuggle arms, money and people into Gaza from Egypt. Israel bombed the tunnels heavily during the war, but smugglers resumed work after the cease-fire. There was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's bombing, but Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency, released a video of it allegedly filmed by militants it did not identify. "Hamas unfortunately controls the Gaza Strip and is directly responsible for all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel," government spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press. "Israel wants the quiet in the south to continue but yesterday's attack is a deliberate provocation designed to undermine and torpedo the calm. If Hamas acts to undermine the cease-fire, it will have no one but itself to blame for the consequences," he said. Before Mitchell's tour, Israeli officials said the envoy would discuss ways to solidify the cease-fire into a longer term truce -- a complicated prospect that will require international arrangements to ensure that Gaza border crossings are opened while preventing Hamas from rearming by smuggling in weapons. The Israeli offensive killed nearly 1,300 people, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Israel had promised him in talks Wednesday to increase the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Aid groups have complained that not enough supply trucks are getting through those crossings controlled by Israel. "We've been talking about how to be able to accelerate the arrival of the humanitarian aid, how it can be distributed faster," Solana told reporters in Amman, where he visited after Jerusalem. Israel has said an average of around 150 trucks a day are entering Gaza. Solana said he hoped that number would jump to 400. Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country. The move comes in retaliation for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's decision to sever ties earlier this month to protest Israel's offensive. At the time, Bolivia also severed ties with the Jewish state. ___ Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in JerusalemAnna Johnson in Cairo, Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
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