Israel to cut ties with Palestinian Authority

[DaSangarTalib]

Israel's security cabinet suggested Sunday that the government cuts all ties with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA), already suffering major financial problems, a government spokesman said.

Israel decided earlier to freeze taxes of tens of millions of dollars it collects on the authority's behalf as well as imposing travel restrictions on Hamas senior figures.

The proposal to cut ties with the Hamas-led government halts any talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, although he was elected separately from Hamas movement.

Shelling Gaza security post

Following Saturday airstrikes in Gaza Strip that hit fields and roads Israel claims are used for launching rocket attacks, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Sunday fired artillery shells at a Palestinian security position in the Gaza Strip, causing casualties, Reuters news agency reported.

Several people were injured in Sunday attack, many of them critically, according to Palestinian security sources.

The Israeli army claimed that it fired artillery shells at northern Gaza in retaliation to rocket attacks on Israel.

At least eight Palestinians died yesterday in other Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which were carried out as part of a campaign claimed to be aimed at stopping Palestinians attacks against southern Israel, The Washington Post reported.

An Israeli military aircraft fired on a car near the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza late Saturday, killing at least six people, who were later identified as members of the Abu Rish Brigades, an armed splinter group of Fatah.

More than a dozen people were injured in the attack, according to hospital officials. But Palestinian official suggest that the toll could rise as operations to get more survivors out of the wreckage are still going.

"This Israeli escalation aims to bring the Palestinian people on their knees and to blackmail the government in order to win over political concessions," Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader and prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, was quoted earlier as saying.

"We will remain loyal to the rights of our people, and we will not give anything that may harm these rights."

Another Israeli airstrike on Friday killed six people, including a 5-year-old child.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the new Hamas-led government, was quoted by Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper as condemning Saturday's attacks as "brutal massacre."

"Maybe it's an important message to the president (Mahmoud Abbas) today that Israel is not interested in peace or political compromises," Hamad said

Al-Jazeera