Top official: Israel must ‘exhaust’ all options to fix Gaza humanitarian crisis

Amid efforts to broker a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers, a senior Israeli official said the process must be allowed to run its course in order to try and reach a deal that will put a stop to violence in the Palestinian territory.

The senior Israeli official pointed to humanitarian conditions in Gaza as the main factor fueling unrest and noted recent Qatari-funded initiatives to bring fuel into the coastal enclave and pay the salaries of civil servants.

“We need to exhaust the possibilities for reaching an arrangement that will fix what is blowing up the situation in Gaza, and that is the humanitarian situation,” the official told reporters during a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Bulgaria.

“We are at least succeeding in solving it temporarily through these arrangements, both for the fuel and the salaries,” the official added.

The comments came as Israel braced to see whether promises of calmer demonstrations along the Gaza border would materialize after previous exceptions of a reduction in violence have gone up in flames.

While urging patience as Egypt and the United Nations work to facilitate a ceasefire agreement, the official noted the difficulties in bringing about partial measures such as the fuel shipments and warned an escalation in violence was very possible.

“This was very close to not happening, and maybe it will fail. In another hour it could fail and we need to be prepared for the second option, that is, if it blows up, we are prepared to use much greater force,” the source said.

The official also said ideally Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should pay the salaries of PA workers in Gaza instead of Qatar, noting it was the Ramallah-based leader’s decision to withhold the payments and stop paying fuel subsidies.

“We must ensure the salary payments don’t end up with terrorist elements and are also a part of the results of efforts to bring calm,” the official said.

While this Friday’s border clashes were reported to be smaller and less violent than weeks past, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported 32 people were injured.

An official from the committee in charge of organizing the “March of Return” protests had told AFP Thursday that the weekly clashes would be “quiet.”

The protest organizing committee is technically independent from Hamas, but includes representatives allied to it, as well as the Islamic Jihad terror group.

Israel has accused Hamas, an Islamist terror group which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, of leading the protests and using them as cover to carry out attacks against troops stationed the border

The unnamed Gazan official said the agreement to calm the border Friday “will give an opportunity for the success of the Egyptian efforts to (achieve) calm and lift the siege.”

Since the violent protests began on March 30, over 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during  clashes along the border, including a number of people who broke through the fence into Israel. Dozens of the fatalities were Hamas members.

One Israeli soldier has been killed by a Palestinian sniper.

In a statement after a meeting of their leaders in Gaza on Thursday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the marches would continue, albeit without violence.

Both groups praised Egyptian and UN efforts to broker a deal.

A separate statement by the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad group carried by Israeli media threatened that it would use a “new tactic,” along the border, without providing details.

After the meeting, a member of the organizing committee said the Egyptian delegation would attend Friday’s protests.

“The Egyptian security delegation will visit one of return march sites tomorrow,” Maher Mazhar told journalists.

He did not give further details, but it would be the first publicly announced visit to the protests by an Egyptian official.

A leader of the Islamic Jihad told the Israeli Haaretz daily that the Egyptians had agreed to work to curb any Israeli response to the protests over the next three weeks. The unnamed official said the protests could be called off after that period if Israel keeps to its commitment to ease a blockade on the Strip.

There was no comment from Egyptian officials.

Last week’s clashes, in which seven Palestinians were reported killed, was followed by Islamic Jihad rocket launches at Israel and retaliatory Israeli Air Force raids, dashing hopes of what was expected to be a calmer weekend along the border.

Agencies contributed to this report.