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JERUSALEM - Israel wants to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade, Israel's deputy defence minister said on Thursday.
Israel, which occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, pulled troops and settlers out in 2005 but still controls its northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters, and has imposed a blockade it says is meant to counter militant rocket fire.
Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said Israel wanted to wash its hands of Gaza altogether by handing over the supply of electricity, water and medicine to others. An Israeli security official said Egypt should take over responsibility.
"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it," Vilnai said.
A spokesman for Hamas, which seized control of Gaza after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah forces in June, rejected what he said was an attempt to separate Gaza from the occupied West Bank.
Israel, the spokesman said, was not exempt from responsibility "since the Gaza Strip is still an occupied land".
An aide to Abbas also said the Israeli idea could be aimed at permanently severing Gaza from the West Bank, the other territory Palestinians seek for an eventual state. Egypt declined to comment on the suggestion.
Militants set off bombs on Wednesday destroying Gaza's southern border wall in the town of Rafah, where Egyptian forces are posted, and allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to pour through to stock up on goods in short supply.
Hundreds of Palestinians shuttled back and forth from Rafah on Thursday as the town was transformed into a giant outdoor market. Egyptian and Palestinian merchants peddled food, fuel, cement, cigarettes and even Viagra.
A Hamas spokesman said the Islamist group had paid 16,000 government employees early so they could go shopping.
Prices in Rafah leapt five-fold. In Gaza City, prices that had shot higher due to shortages eased back and previously depleted market stalls in Gaza City were piled high with goods.
The streets of Gaza City were quiet.
"Almost the entire population of Gaza are on vacation in Egypt," said Khaled Ali, a Palestinian policeman guarding the hole in the fence.
Israel tightened its cordon around the Gaza Strip last week, briefly stopping fuel supplies to the territory's only power station and blocking aid shipments as part of a campaign it said was meant to prevent cross-border rocket attacks.
The Jewish state has since allowed some fuel into Gaza but European and Western officials said it had limited deliveries in the past two days, leading to some power cuts in the enclave.
The plant's general manager, Derar Abu Sissi, said it may have to start shutting its turbines down again on Sunday night unless Israel approves a fresh delivery of EU-funded fuel.
The UN Human Rights Council said on Thursday it deplored the "grave violations" being committed by Israel in Gaza, home to 1.5 million people, and demanded it lift the blockade.
Echoing Vilnai's comments, an Israeli security official said Israel wanted Egypt to supply Gaza's utilities and act as a base for aid groups serving the territory, adding the government was working on proposals to shift responsibility to Cairo.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' leader in Gaza, reiterated his call for Egypt and Abbas to meet Hamas in Cairo to secure an agreement to reopen Rafah on a permanent basis.
But a senior aide to Abbas, who is pursuing a peace deal with Israel and is under pressure to rein in militants, said he was "not happy" his Islamist rivals could easily enter Egypt.
Hamas and other militant groups have been using a network of underground tunnels to smuggle weapons and explosives into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
- REUTERS
