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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel military: naval blockade of Gaza proper |
| 2010-08-27 |
| JERUSALEM — Israel’s top military judge said on Thursday the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is legal, in testimony before an inquiry into a deadly May 31 raid on an activist ship seeking to break it, media reported. “We’ve consulted with the attorney general and with the Supreme Court, and found that it is legal and permitted,” Judge Advocate General Major General Avihai Mandelblit told the five-member Israeli commission of inquiry, according to the Haaretz daily. He also said the naval blockade was imposed out of “pure military considerations” and not as a part of “economic warfare” against Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is committed to Israel’s destruction. He also pointed out that even before the blockade was imposed in 2007, all supplies were transferred to the Gaza by land because Gaza has no proper port. The commission, which includes two international observers, is only mandated to look at the international legality of the blockade and the raid. |
| Posted by:Steve White |