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Defense minister orders stop to Gaza fuel shipments over fire balloons, Hamas kin denied exit
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday ordered a freeze on all fuel and gas shipments into Gazoo through the main goods crossing into the enclave, in response to continued incendiary balloon attacks and ongoing violence along the Israel-Gazoo border.The closure will continue until further notice, Israeli officials said on a day when firefighters battled seven separate brush fires near the Gazoo border caused by incendiary balloons, according to fire and rescue officials. In recent days, balloons have been found farther and farther from the Gazoo Strip, landing as far away as the southern city of Beersheba. The crossing has been closed to all but humanitarian aid  deliveries in recent weeks, and was most recently reopened last week after officials noted a marked decline in the arson attacks from Gazoo.Israel said to toughen its policy on entry permits to Gazans with Hamas ties [IsraelTimes] NGOs say number of Palestinians denied exit from coastal enclave due to relatives accused of being Hamas operatives has soared; Defense Ministry says entry 'is not a vested right' Israel has toughened its policy on allowing Gazans to enter the country, denying hundreds of exit permits to those determined to have a close family member with connections to terror group Hamas, a rights group said Wednesday. “In the first quarter of 2018 alone, 833 exit permit applications by residents of Gaza were denied by Israel on the grounds that the applicants’ ‘first-degree relative is a Hamas operative,'” Gisha, an Israeli left-wing NGO that monitors the blockade of the Gaza Strip, said in a statement. “For comparison, the Israeli authorities refused 21 applications on these grounds throughout 2017.” Gisha along with three other NGOs based their findings on data obtained through a freedom of information request from the Defense Ministry. The three other organizations are Adalah, Al Mezan and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, all accused by many in the Jewish state of being anti-Israel. The Defense Ministry unit that oversees the permits, known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, told AFP that the 833 declined applications represented 529 people since some had applied more than once. COGAT said “the entry of Palestinians who are residents of the Gaza Strip into Israel is not a vested right, and is made possible according to existing policy and subject to security checks. “In accordance with the decision of the government, residents of the Gaza Strip who are first-degree relatives of operatives of the Hamas terror organization are not entitled to entry permits into Israel.” Those declined permits have included people seeking medical care for cancer, Gisha has alleged. COGAT declined to say how many were seeking permits for medical reasons. “Denying patients’ access to medical treatment on the grounds that they have family relations to Hamas members is a breach of international law, and completely immoral,” the NGOs said in a statement. Gisha claimed that “importantly, some of the cancer patients who have been denied exit permits are not aware of any family relation to a Hamas member.” The NGOs said the change in policy appeared to be the result of a decision taken by Israel’s security cabinet authorizing action to pressure Hamas to return the remains of two IDF soldiers killed during a war in 2014, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, which it is believed to be holding. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-08-02 |
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