GAZA, January 24 (KUNA) — Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on Thursday said that his country was willing to cut the remaining links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza after the Strip’s borders with Egypt were blasted open.
We have to realize that when Gaza is open to the other side, we lose responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it, Vilnai told Radio Israel.
Israel seized occupied Gaza in 1967, and withdrew in 2005 but still controls the Strip’s northern and eastern borders, airspace and coasts. Moreover, it has imposed a blockade on the Strip saying it is meant to halt rocket fire on southern Israel.
Vilnai also said the disengagement plan with Gaza was going on noting that Israel were trying to stop supplying Gaza with electricity, water and medications since there is an alternative, a hint to Egypt.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians from the Strip flowed across the borders to the Egyptian side on Wednesday for the second successive day to buy their needs of foodstuff.
Witnesses said the flow did not stop all night leaving several Egyptian shops without goods after they sold all their supplies.