Israel Halts Contact After Lethal Attack

Casting a pall over today’s swearing-in of newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Israel announced Friday that it was cutting all contacts with Palestinian officials in the wake of a deadly assault on a border cargo terminal.

Palestinians criticized the decision as premature in light of the fact that Abbas, who was elected Sunday to replace the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president, had not even taken office when the attack occurred. Six Israeli civilians were killed when Palestinian militants armed with explosives and automatic weapons struck the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip late Thursday.

The developments damped a quietly celebratory mood that had prevailed in the Palestinian territories since the election. And they provided a stark illustration of how Abbas is already caught between Israel’s demands and the militants’ determination to scuttle any move toward peace talks.

The Israeli suspension of contact came just three days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon telephoned Abbas to congratulate him on his win and informed his Cabinet that the two would meet soon. No date for the meeting had been set, but lower-level preparatory talks had begun, officials on both sides said.

Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said no contact of any kind would take place until the new Palestinian government took concrete steps to prevent attacks such as the one at Karni.

Three Palestinian groups claimed joint responsibility for the attack on the cargo terminal, the main commercial lifeline to the impoverished coastal territory. They were Hamas, the largest and most powerful of the militant organizations; the much lesser-known Popular Resistance Committees; and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which has ties to Abbas’ Fatah movement.

Even before Thursday’s attack, the militant groups had explicitly challenged Abbas’ call for a halt to the armed struggle against Israel. Militants in Gaza launched mortar and rocket attacks against Jewish settlements and Israeli towns as Abbas campaigned in the seaside strip, and they reacted angrily when he said the salvos only served to bring Israel’s military wrath down on Palestinian civilians.

In response to the Karni attack, Israel announced Friday that it was sealing off the Gaza Strip indefinitely -- a step likely to cause significant hardship for Palestinians, including workers with jobs in Israel and strawberry farmers trying to ship their harvest out of the enclave.

Aides described Sharon as infuriated by the attack, which occurred after the terminal’s hours had been extended into the late evening to allow more goods to pass into and out of Gaza.

“Not just the prime minister, but everyone in Israel is angry,” Gissin said. “We have been trying to ease the Palestinians’ harsh living conditions, and here we are with innocent, murdered Israeli civilians.” Gissin said the ban on contact with the Palestinians would be lifted “when they take real steps to prevent terror activity.”

Palestinian officials complained about the abruptness of Israel’s decision and said that, at the very least, lower-level talks should go forward.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, who has served as the Palestinians’ lead negotiator, said he was notified of the suspension in a telephone call from a Sharon aide, whom he did not identify.

“I told them they are not giving Abu Mazen a chance, because he will be sworn in only tomorrow,” said Erekat, using the name by which Abbas is commonly known. “Instead of cutting contacts, we should have more contacts.”

Earlier in the day, Abbas condemned the attack on the crossing but also criticized the Israeli military for raids targeting Palestinian militants, saying such actions “do not benefit peace.” Abbas has said he hopes to reach an accord with the militant groups rather than trying to crush them by force.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Taleb Sana, who met with the president-elect Friday, said Abbas had told him he wanted to avoid a fitna, or civil war, at all costs. “ ‘Palestinian blood will not be spilled under these circumstances,’ ” Sana quoted Abbas as saying.

Before the prime minister’s office announced the suspension, some senior officials in Sharon’s government had spoken of the need to avoid undermining Abbas, particularly in his early days in office.

“We must try to strengthen him as a leader, assuming that at some point he will be able to take control of the terror organizations,” Justice Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel’s Army Radio.

Another minister, Matan Vilnai, said that despite the “grave attack,” Abbas should be given time to tackle the problem. “I don’t want to say exactly how much time we should give him, but it definitely needs to be a number of weeks in order to see which direction he’s going,” Vilnai said.

The Karni crossing, through which hundreds of trucks pass each day, was shut down immediately after the attackers stormed the cargo terminal. Senior defense officials announced Friday that the sole remaining crossing used by Palestinians, the Erez checkpoint in the north of Gaza, would be closed indefinitely as well. Jewish settlers in the strip will be able to come and go, however, using a special road limited to Israeli traffic.

Israeli officials expressed frustration over militants’ repeated attacks at the Gaza crossings, saying they only cause suffering for the civilian population. That view was echoed by Salim abu Safiya, the Palestinian commander at Karni. “Those who carried out this attack didn’t have the Palestinian people’s interests at heart,” he said.

The attackers blasted their way through a wall separating the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the terminal, using more than 220 pounds of explosives, and then opened fire with automatic weapons, Israeli investigators said. Three of the assailants were killed.

Five people hurt in the attack remained hospitalized. All six of the Israeli dead were truck drivers or workers at the terminal.

Three of them were from the nearby town of Sderot, which has been under near-constant rocket fire from Palestinian militants inside Gaza. The rockets usually fall harmlessly in fields, but they killed four Israelis last year, including three small children.

Many Gazans who had hoped the election of Abbas would improve their dismal day-to-day circumstances were disheartened by the turn of events.

The attack “causes harm to the Palestinian people because our economy has collapsed -- it’s less than zero,” said Saad Masoud, a father of six in Gaza City. “We have to give Mahmoud Abbas a chance for peace. This is the only way.”

Special correspondent Tamer Misshal in Gaza City contributed to this report.