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Quartet hopes package will unlock Middle East talks
Speaking after a meeting in Moscow of the group -- comprising the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- their envoy Tony Blair told Reuters he hoped for a package of measures to get the talks started.
“I hope very much that in the next few days we will have a package that gives people the sense that, yes, despite all the difficulties of the past few days, it is worth having proximity talks and then those leading to direct negotiations,” he said.
The latest obstacle to those talks came 10 days ago when Israel announced, during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, that it would build 1,600 new housing units in a part of Jerusalem that it captured in 1967 and annexed unilaterally.
The announcement infuriated both Washington and the Palestinians, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given a “useful and productive” response to her concerns during a telephone conversation on Thursday. She did not give details.
Blair declined to give details of the package of measures, saying: “That will become clear as the days unfold.”
The quartet called for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to end Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state within 24 months.
The quartet did not say how it could ensure its calls, which have gone unheeded in the past, would be respected. It promised only to “closely monitor developments in Jerusalem and to keep under consideration additional steps that may be required.”
Gaza strike
Hours before the quartet met, Israeli aircraft struck at least six targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory the previous day, which killed a Thai worker in Israel.
The quartet’s statement condemned the rocket fire and called for an “immediate end to violence and terror,” but added:
“The quartet is deeply concerned by the continuing deterioration in Gaza, including the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population, and stresses the urgency of a resolution to the Gaza crisis.” The group also called on Israel and the Palestinians to avoid “provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric” and told Israel to freeze all settlement building, dismantle outposts erected since March 2001 and halt demolitions in East Jerusalem.
Israeli aircraft strike targets in Gaza
Israeli aircraft struck at least six targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said.
Two civilians were wounded in one of three attacks on smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt. The other targets included two open areas in Khan Younis and a metal foundry near Gaza City.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed six sites had been targeted, including two tunnels dug near the Israeli border fence and a weapons manufacturing site, and added “direct hits were identified.”
Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom had said on Thursday Israel would make a strong response to what was the first deadly rocket fire from Hamas-ruled Gaza at Israel in more than a year. Israel also sent a letter of complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend, and the UN Security Council.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev urged Ban to call for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Gaza militants in 2006. Hamas has demanded Israel free hundreds of the thousands of militants in its jails in exchange for the soldier. A previously unknown group, Ansar al-Sunna, believed to share the hardline ideology of al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire at Israel, as well as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a wing of the mainstream Fatah movement. Gaza Reuters
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