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Israeli, Palestinian envoys in Beijing speak on attack

By Guo Ji (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-30 07:35

The Palestinian envoy in Beijing yesterday rapped Israel for its latest air strikes on Gaza, while the Israeli ambassador defended his country's position.

Yousef Ramadan, the counselor of the Palestinian embassy, said the Israeli leadership is building their credentials "on Palestinian blood" for their coming election.

"Our people's blood is being used and we believe such action will lead to nowhere but violence and more casualties," he said.

Yousef said the Israeli attack that started over the weekend targeted Palestinian civilians, not Hamas militants as it claimed, leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

He demanded an immediate halt to the attack, calling for humanitarian supplies of food and medicine to be allowed into Gaza.

Israeli ambassador Amos Nadai yesterday insisted the attack aims to "eliminate the capabilities of Hamas". He refused to say how long the action will last.

Nadai rejected media reports speculating that the attack was meant to serve the upcoming general election in Israel.

Nadai said Israel was forced to fight back because of Hamas' continuous rocket attacks on Israeli citizens.

"We've done all the things we can do (for peace). We left Gaza, signed the agreement with Palestine, but all the efforts failed," Nadai said.

"Hamas should take full responsibility for the civilian casualties in the air attack," he said.

Gao Heng, a senior researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily "any violence that targets civilians is unacceptable".

Yin Gang, a researcher in Middle East affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the action by Hamas was "not in line with the interests of Palestine".

(China Daily 12/30/2008 page1)