- Title: ISRAEL: Israel's Olmert says Gaza will not become humanitarian crisis
- Date: 24th January 2008
- Summary: WIDE OF CONFERENCE (W4) HERZLIYA, ISRAEL (JANUARY 23, 2008) (REUTERS ) TANKS BEING DRIVEN OUTSIDE CONFERENCE READING: 'PRIVATE OLMERT GO HOME!' AND EFFIGY OF OLMERT (SOUNDBITE) (English) RESERVIST WHO FOUGHT IN LAST WAR, EDI YAIR FRIMAN SAYING: "We are here because we are calling on the prime minister to resign we think that his decision to send soldiers during the second
- Embargoed: 8th February 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA368FIU3V368LXEB9D1COV17TX
- Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shrugs off responsibility for Lebanon war failures and repeats his assurance not to allow Gaza to become a humanitarian crisis.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday (January 23) he was not sorry about decisions he had made during the Lebanon war and would not let Gaza slip into a humanitarian crisis.
"I am not sorry about the critical decisions that I spearheaded as prime minister, not those linked to the war in Lebanon or other events,"
Olmert told an annual conference in the city of Herzliya in central Israel.
The speech came just a week before the publication of the final results of an inquiry into the failures of the 2006 war.
Olmert also sought ease concern over conditions in Gaza, which have sharply deteriorated as a result of an Israeli blockade.
"We will not permit, under any circumstances or conditions, a humanitarian crisis to develop," Olmert said in the policy speech, just hours after tens of thousands of Gazans, challenging the blockade, forced their way into neighbouring Egypt.
"We will not harm the supply of food for children, medicine for those who need it and fuel for institutions that save lives. But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south."
Israel began to let some supplies into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, but UN officials warned of disaster if border crossings are not reopened to aid shipments on a permanent basis.
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