Israel attacked Palestinian prime minister's office
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/3/2006

The Israeli air force raided Hanieh's office in Gaza early morning on Sunday, but he was not there at the time.

The secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, in Saudi Arabia Monday condemned the Zionist regime's air raid on the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, referring to it as a crime.

A statement issued by Haniya on Monday said that Israel was fully responsible for the raid and other crimes committed daily by Israeli forces against the defenseless Palestinian people.

Stressing that the measure taken by Israel was unauthorized and against all human and international laws, he called on the world community and international institutions to pressure Israel to stop its inhuman raids.

The statement called for the release of all officials of the Palestinian government and parliament who had been kidnapped by Israel.

"The OIC secretary-general has contacted international bodies, including members of the quadrilateral committee (including the United Nations, European Union, Russia and US) on the issue who has expressed his deep concern in this respect.

"Besides, he has called on the committee members to fulfill their responsibilities towards the Palestinian people," added the statement.

The Israeli army launched a major air and ground offensive last week on the Gaza Strip following the kidnapping of an Israeli army corporal by Palestinian militants.

The offensive, which cut off food and electricity to the occupied territories, is the biggest military operation since Israel's pull-out from Gaza in September 2005.

The occupied Gaza Strip has been the target of Israeli air raids and ground attacks since last week which has claimed the lives of a number of Palestinians and seriously damaged several infrastructure installations in the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said today "Israel will not give in to extortion by the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government, which are led by murderous terrorist organizations. We will not conduct any negotiations on the release of prisoners. The Palestinian Authority bears full responsibility for the welfare of Gilad Shalit and for returning him safe and sound to Israel."

AN Israeli report said "The three Palestinian groups holding Corporal Gilad Shalit have given Israel until 6 o'clock Tuesday morning" to meet their demands for the release of 1000 Palestinian prisoners.

Worth noting that Israel has been kidnapping and killing Palestinians on a near daily basis prior to the Israeli soldier kidnapping, and Israel has given itself a free hand in this regard with the right to act as it chooses against the occupied Palestinians, killing, detaining and kidnapping at will those it choose to.

The Israeli forces had kidnapped a number of officials of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian government and parliament and have taken them to an unknown spot.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan voiced concern about the Israeli bombardment of PM office in Gaza amid military operations, stressing that Palestinian institutions must be preserved in order to achieve a lasting settlement. He said "I would like to add a word about the situation in the Gaza, in particular, regarding the bombing of the Prime Minister's office and the arrest of the Palestinian legislators, and, of course, I have already said something about the humanitarian situation, which is also of great concern."

"I remain very concerned about the need to preserve Palestinian institutions and infrastructure. They will be the basis for an eventual two-State solution and are thus in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians."

In light of those considerations, Annan said it would "seem inadvisable to carry out actions that would have the opposite effect."

Previous Stories:
  UN agencies concern over humanitarian conditions in Gaza   (7/1/2006)
  Israel attack on Gaza pre-planned   (7/1/2006)
  USA position on Israeli attack on Gaza   (6/29/2006)
  10 murdered in Gaza, 4 of them paramedics   (6/13/2006)
  Israeli air raid kills 4 in Rafah   (6/9/2006)
  Two Palestinian casualty of Istaeli strike treated by Israelis   (6/7/2006)

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