ISRAEL: Solana meets Livni in Sderot minutes after Palestinian rocket kills a woman, Olmert also visits town

Record ID: 395922

  • Title: ISRAEL: Solana meets Livni in Sderot minutes after Palestinian rocket kills a woman, Olmert also visits town
  • Date: 22nd May 2007
  • Summary: (BN14)SDEROT, ISRAEL (MAY 21, 2007) (REUTERS) EUROPEAN UNION'S FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF JAVIER SOLANA AND ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE SOLANA AND LIVNI ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER, SAYING: "The Palestinian government headed by Hamas terrorist organisation is responsible for this situation and this unacce
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA980U5HLGNL3C2LZZY6TEZ0M5Q
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited the rocket-battered town of Sderot a few hours after a Palestinian rocket attack from neighbouring Gaza caused the death of an Israeli woman and wounded two others.
    Angry residents chanted "Resign" and "Disgrace" at Olmert as he visited a police operation room and talked to municipality officials.
    The woman's death marked the first fatality in a rocket attack since November and was claimed by Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Hamas.
    Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana convened a news conference minutes after the town was hit.
    "The Palestinian government headed by Hamas terrorist organisation responsible for this situation and this unacceptable situation must be stopped. Until now Israel has shown restraint but the rockets and the Qassam missiles on Sderot and the attacks continued. Israel must defend its citizens," Livni told a news conference ahead of her meeting with Solana.
    The European Chief asked Israel to continue its policy of restraint.
    "Israel has to use restraint and I hope that they continue to use it. I think that this is not in the benefit of anyone to escalate," Solana said.
    The Israeli army said about 150 rockets fired from Gaza have landed in Sderot and the surrounding area since last Tuesday. Israel has stepped up attacks on militants involved in rocket fire and said all Hamas leaders involved in cross-rocket border rocket fire could be targeted.
    Thousands of residents have left Sderot since the latest surge in Palestinian rocket fire, the Israeli army said.
    About a hundred residents took to the streets surrounding the place in which Solana and Livni's joint news conference was being held. Some protesters set tyres ablaze and blocked the street from which Solana's convoy was about to leave, heading out of Sderot.
    During the spontaneous street protest, sirens alerting a rocket attack went on, and residents and police ran for cover. A few minutes after the 30-seconds-long siren, the protest ensued.
    Israel's security cabinet decided on Sunday (May 20) to escalate military action in response to the rocket attacks.
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