In January 2008, food shortages and energy reached a critical level. On January 20 UN officials called on Israel to open border crossings with the Gaza Strip, warning that violence and desprovisiamiento for 1.4 million Palestinians would lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Following international concern about the impending crisis, Israel easing restrictions during the day, allowing the shipment of fuel for the power of the Gaza Strip and cooking oil.
On January 22, there was gunfire after a group of Hamas demonstrators, mostly women, forced open the door of the border crossing at Rafah, entering Egypt.
In the early morning of January 23, masked militants staged a series of explosions along the border wall, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cross into Egypt. Between 200,000 and 700,000 Palestinians crossed the border to buy goods in stores Egyptian cities of Rafah (look at the Rafah border crossing) and Al-Arish.
Although Egypt gazanos permission to enter Egypt, were not allowed to travel too far, banning travel beyond El Arish. Egypt said it would not use force to return the Palestinians. . The spokesman Israel Air Force for the Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, added that the border would be closed again when all the Palestinians had returned.
Israeli security officials said the militants who carried out the explosions in the border wall to send armed men to infiltrate the Sinai after Israel through the Egyptian-Israeli border. Officials said the militants were eager to strike again response to Israeli attacks in recent weeks and predicted attacks in the Sinai within the next two weeks .
On January 24 the Council of Human Rights condemned Israel for 15 eighth time in less than two years, although the procedure was boycotted by Israel and the United States. UU. In response, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman told ‘Do not listen to the governor to describe Holmes 4200 missiles were launched towards Israeli cities aimed at killing innocent babies and children, a crisis humanitaria ‘. and that this condemnation was not mention the missile attacks into civilian targets since the Gaza Strip. Fifteen countries, including seven of the European Union abstained in the vote. The EU ambassadors said they abstained because “the character was concerned in part the decision.” Faced with international pressure during certain days of the blockade, Israel choose to temporarily ease restrictions on Palestinians.
On Ashdod January 25 Egyptian security forces blocked almost all illegal entry points along the border with the Gaza Strip to try to stem the flow of Palestinians who wanted to cross, for it placed barbed wire along the same . But Palestinian militants opened new holes with bulldozers to move the population.
After repairs, the Palestinians used a bulldozer to destroy one of the new fence, creating an opening again. entered its fifth day, the Egyptian border police began to prohibit the entry into Gaza and were in vehicles beyond blocking the road from Rafah to El Arish. In Rafah hardly stopped buying, and Egypt decided to restrict refueling El Arish and Rafah, to end new crossings and restore order and control of the border.
Egypt, which refused to attack the Palestinian people, its security forces retreated and accept a plan for the PNA president, Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Fatah party, controls the Rafah crossing. Abbas for now refuses to talk to the fundamentalist Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip, fearing that Israel would not halt the negotiations for that. That is why the plan would be difficult to implement because the Islamist movement Hamasrefuses to accept the participation avoided.
- CBC
Shots and explosions flashed in the night sky above the Gaza Strip early Sunday as Israel escalated its eight-day military campaign against Hamas by the sending ground troops into the Gaza Strip under cover of darkness. - Israel National News
(IsraelNN.com) Israel luchtmacht gevechtsvliegtuigen piloten gedood twee hooggeplaatste Hamas-terroristen op zondag in een gerichte luchtaanval op het middaguur Askqelon in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis – very near the former Jewish town of N’vei Dekalim. - CBC via Yahoo! Canada News
Israel extended its eight-day military campaign against Hamas late Saturday by sending troops in the Gaza Strip after the evening, while the Israeli Minister of Defense warned the offensive will not be easy or short. ” - CBC via Yahoo! Canada News
Israel extended its eight-day military campaign against Hamas late Saturday by sending troops in the Gaza Strip after the evening, while the Israeli Minister of Defense warned the offensive will not be easy or short. “