MIDDLE EAST: Hamas calls on EU to step up pressure on Israel, while residents from all over Israel show solidarity with Sderot

Record ID: 1526293

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Hamas calls on EU to step up pressure on Israel, while residents from all over Israel show solidarity with Sderot
  • Date: 23rd February 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS OFFICIAL SAMI ABU ZUHRI SAYING: "We in Hamas highly appreciate the European Union call to end the Israeli siege on Gaza and the call of the Palestinian President authority (Mahmoud Abbas) to restore dialogue with the Hamas movement." WIDE OF SAMI ABU ZUHRI AND REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS OFFICIAL SAMI ABU ZUHRI SAYING: "In regard to the rockets, we say that the problem is in the occupation, aggression and the siege that is imposed on our Palestinian people. And we in Hamas are ready to study any European initiative that could contribute to the ending of the Israeli aggression on our people and bring calm to the region."
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2008 12:59
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: European Union
  • Reuters ID: LVA4A9I5HKPT4LYUJYA6O8PFNHVG
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Thousands of people participated on Friday (February 22) in a funeral procession for one of the militants killed in an Israeli air strike, in the streets of the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza city.
    Militants fired in the air as they took the militant's body to his family home for a final farewell before he was buried at the nearby cemetery in central Gaza.
    An Israeli missile strike killed at least two Palestinian militants and wounded a third in the central Gaza Strip, close to the border fence with the Jewish state on Friday, medical staff and Hamas security officials said.
    The Hamas officials, who did not wish to be named, said the militants were members of the Islamic Jihad militant group who were walking east of the Maghazi refugee camp when they were targeted.
    Hamas called on the European Union (EU) to step up pressure on Israel to lift its economic and military blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist group.
    On Thursday (February 21), EU lawmakers urged Israel not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population, saying its isolation of the territory had failed and its actions were endangering civilians.
    Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza last June after Hamas routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and seized control of the impoverished coastal territory. Israel said its tightened restriction were in response to cross-border rocket fire by Gaza militants.
    Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip have killed some 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but have failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis in the same period. Shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence after beating Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election two years ago, Hamas says it would cease fire if Israel stopped its military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
    Also on Friday (February 22) four Palestinians, including two children, were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the village of Ma'asra, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, during a protest by Palestinians on Friday against Israel's separation barrier. In another demonstration near the West Bank city of Nablus, resident of a near by village protested the Israeli army closing the entrance to the village in order to open a new road. Protesters, who scuffled with the Israeli forces, demanded the opening of a new entrance to the village.
    Meanwhile, residents from different cities and towns in Israel flocked to the southern town of Sderot in a day of solidarity with the residents of the town devastated by frequent makeshift rocket attacks fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza. Israeli army counted 800 rocket launches from the beginning of the year 2008.
    The residents did their shopping for the Jewish day of rest, Shabbat (Saturday) in shops in Sderot, in an effort to boost the economy of the town, music was playing loudly in a festive atmosphere throughout the streets. Among the visitors, groups of cyclists and motorcyclists who came to show solidarity.
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