(Photo Illustration. Dead Woman With Two Dead Children.)

The Palestinian Information Center (PIC)

Senior Hamas political leader and member of the Movement's political bureau, Sami Khater, said on Wednesday that the IOF brutality in Gaza Strip was "practical translation" of the understandings between Israel and the USA.

In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Khater held the Israel, the USA, and the PA leadership fully responsible for the bloody IOF attacks against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip.

He also underlined that all options are open before the Palestinian people to retaliate to those atrocities, adding that the visit of US president George W. Bush encouraged Israeli premier Ehud Olmert and provided him with the political cover to carryout those heinous crimes.

Moreover, Khater asserted that the weak and unpatriotic stand of the PA leadership in Ramallah city had encouraged Bush to provide Israel with political cover, especially after PA chief Mahmoud Abbas publicly condemned the Palestinian resistance.

He also deprecated the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and described it as "futile", urging the PA leadership and the Palestinian negotiators to stop all forms of contacts with the Israeli occupation government in the shadow of the continuous IOF aggression on the Gaza Strip that left dozens of Palestinians martyred and tens others seriously wounded.

"The PA-Israeli negotiations are helping the IOF troops to justify their crimes in Gaza Strip", Khater pointed out, adding that Olmert plans to escalate the military aggressions on Gaza with the aim to bail himself out of the current political crises that threaten his coalition government.

In this regard, the Hamas's leader explained that the withdrawal of the "Israel Beituna" party, which is chaired by hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, from the Israeli cabinet, in addition to Olmert's fears over the results of the Winograd report will push him (Olmert) to escape forward in order to avoid early election bid.

But Khater also blamed the Arab regimes and other Muslim states for taking an "unwarranted" passive stand vis-à-vis the relentless IOF crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the West Bank, highlighting that Arab disunity and weakness helped Israel to continue its military aggressions and settlement plans in occupied Palestine.

"The Arab states that have received Bush should have asked him to stop the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people and to pressure him into halting US political support to those heinous crimes", Khater emphasized.

Finally, Khater said that the Israeli military aggressions will only strengthen the Palestinian people in the steadfast Gaza Strip, and that the IOF troops' atrocities won't break the determination of the Palestinian people regardless of their intensity.

Na'im: Wounded Palestinians are dying in Gaza hospitals

Dr. Basim Na'im, the PA health minister, said on Wednesday that scores of Palestinian citizens wounded in the IOF attacks on Gaza Strip were dying in local hospitals because of lack of medicine and medical equipments.

In a press conference he held in Gaza city to explain the health condition in the tiny Gaza Strip amidst the persistent IOF attacks and the continued Israeli hermitic blockade on it, Naim appealed to the international community.

"Gaza is weakened by wounds", Naim said in the press conference urging Arab and Muslim worlds and concerned international organizations to seriously and effectively mobilize their efforts to lift the repressive siege on Gaza Strip.

He explained that the shortage of medicine and medical supplies to local hospitals disrupted their works and jeopardized lives of tens of Palestinian citizens wounded in IOF attacks on the strip over the past 24 hours.

The economic blockade on Gaza Strip was imposed by the USA, Israel, and their international and regional allies for almost two years now after Hamas Movement won democratic and transparent elections in the PA.

On Monday, IOF troops invaded the eastern part of Gaza city, killing and wounding tens of Palestinian citizens, many of them fighters, before Palestinian resistance fighters forced them to pull out.

"Hospital workers weren’t able to find shrouds for martyrs of the IOF massacre in the Zaitun suburb", said Na'im, warning of adverse repercussions if the Israeli occupation government cut off electricity supply to Gaza.

In this regard, Na'im affirmed that the legitimate PA premier Ismael Haneyya had personally discussed health condition in Gaza Strip with a number of Arab leaders, in addition to the ministry's contacts with concerned international human rights and legal organizations.

A number of international organizations, Na'im added, have heeded calls of the PA health ministry; yet, the Israeli closure of Gaza exits made it difficult for food, medicines, and other commodities to pass through the Israeli checkpoints. [PIC]

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

© 2007 The Palestinian Information Center (PIC)

URL: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/01/17/khater_gaza_massacre_practical_translati

SOURCE: http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s761v81EyoXm1mqMLPDG
ny%2f%2bYlLniyAdFv1tFmgIp5IBftgGlWsWIMvRI0zpaRYxwSD8DIhj7QZA0XUZP0Ww7L0t
I6HRnZyzEXibKJ6Vf5tio%3d