Shin Bet rules out end to Gaza siege

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130648§ionid=351020202


Israel's internal spy agency cautions Tel Aviv against giving in to global demands to lift its naval blockade of Gaza as Palestinians insist easing the siege is not enough.

There is room to further relax the importing of goods to the Gaza Strip through land crossings, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) on Tuesday.

“I find the opening of the naval blockade to be a very dangerous development,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Diskin as saying before members of the Knesset at the closed-door meeting.

Diskin further ruled out a proposal by the European Union that international observers inspect Gaza-bound cargos at a neutral port, such as Cyprus, before entering waters controlled by Israel.

“The possibility of Gaza building a port would be an enormous hole [in security], despite the possibility that international checks of cargo could be carried out before the ships reach Gaza,” he said.

The comments came a day before a key security cabinet meeting to discuss the future of the Gaza blockade, and amid rising international calls for an end to the years-long siege triggered by Israel's deadly attack on an aid convoy in international waters.

The attack killed a score of activists onboard the six-ship Gaza Freedom Flotilla as it was heading for the impoverished territory with some 10,000 tons of aid.

Meanwhile, Palestine's democratically elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned all initiatives to ease the siege rather than lift it as "attempts to institutionalize" the blockade.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas also said Israel should lift its closure of the Gaza Strip "in the sense that the seven Israeli crossings must be open for all the needs of the Gaza Strip."

Israel imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza strip after the Islamic Hamas movement's sweeping victory in the 2006 legislative elections. The restrictions were further tightened in 2007 after the Islamic movement took control of the Gaza Strip power in the wake of a coup attempt by rival Fatah, which formed its own government in the West Bank.