Following long deliberations, Israel's Security Cabinet last week declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile territory." It said it would "restrict the passage of various goods to the Gaza Strip and reduce the supply of fuel and electricity. Restrictions will also be placed on the movement of people to and from the Gaza Strip."

The rocket attacks have put Olmert in a tough spot. He had been one of the initiators of the 2005 unconditional withdrawal from Gaza. It failed to produce peace. This year alone Palestinian militants have fired 700 Qassam rockets, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the ministers. Four people were killed, and the attacks terrorized Israelis who live near Gaza.

Israel curtailed attacks from the West Bank largely because it reoccupied that area. Its intelligence gathering is effective there, and troops enter its towns to make arrests. Last Thursday, for example, a would-be suicide bomber, the attack's planner and the person who was supposed to lead the attacker to Israel were arrested in Nablus. However, in the crowded Gaza Strip such operations would require massive, costly battles.

In Gaza, therefore, Israel resorted to targeted killings, air attacks, ambushes and gun battles. Pressure on Olmert's government to do something more effective increased last week when a rocket hit an army base injuring 69 soldiers.

By now an important development occurred in Gaza: It has an effective government. The Islamic Hamas seized power from Fatah and with thousands of security men controls the Gaza Strip. Someone there is accountable, or should be.

The Israeli move is designed to increase pressure on the Strip's 1.4 million residents so they turn to Ismail Haniyeh's government and complain the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel unleashed a painful retaliation and urge militants to stop.

The second aim was to weaken Haniyeh's government and strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad who control the West Bank.

Olmert and Abbas are negotiating an understanding and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted they have already created teams "to try and memorialize those understandings." Hamas opposes peace with Israel.

However, in pressuring the Gazans, Israel must be careful not to violate international humanitarian law.

Legal experts are at odds on whether Israel is still the occupying power in Gaza. Its troops left in 2005 but they surround the Strip (except for a passage to Egypt that is closed) and control its airspace.

Professor Natan Lerner, who specializes in International Human Rights Law at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, told United Press International that since Israel does exercise some control over the Gaza Strip it is responsible for the residents' humanitarian needs.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni acknowledged as much.

"When it comes to humanitarian needs we have responsibility," she said but hastened to add: "All needs which go beyond humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel to the Gaza Strip."

A senior defense source told UPI Israel will handle only "urgent humanitarian needs," but that the authorities still have to decide what that means.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the defense establishment has an old list of items that must be provided such as medicines and food. More items than that recently crossed into Gaza on some 200 trucks, usually semi-trailers, a day. When there were no restrictions, some 900 to 1,000 trucks would carry goods in and out, but meeting urgent humanitarian needs might require only 50 to 60 trucks a day.

Electricity may be cut for limited durations and Israel will supply diesel fuel for Gaza's power plant, ambulances, firetrucks and garbage trucks. Some police cars use diesel fuel, but Israel cannot prevent that. However, it can cut fuel for the private sector, the official said.

Border crossings will be closed more frequently and if they come under fire they will be closed for 48 hours at a time. The source said "mortars that hit all the time" wounded 13 soldiers who serve at the coordination offices in that area.

The Security Cabinet's decision led U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and EU Foreign Policy Czar Javier Solana to urge Israel to reconsider its planned move. The Gazans "should not be deprived of basic necessities," Solana said.

Rice, who was in Jerusalem, promised: "We will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza, and indeed will make every effort to deal with their humanitarian needs."

In a telephone interview, Prime Minister Haniyeh's aide Ghazi Hamad told UPI the planned Israeli steps will resolve nothing.

"This is useless. Gaza is all the time under oppression and humiliation. Unemployment had reached more than 60 percent; there are neither exports nor imports. �� Gaza, since 2000 (when the intifada erupted) is under huge collective punishment from Israel," he said. He implied heavy pressure did not help the Israelis so far, and will not crack Hamas in the future.

Haniyeh was, however, trying to get militants to stop the attacks. And yet, the Haaretz newspaper quoted an Islamic Jihad spokesman as saying the rocket attacks affirm their option of "continuing holy war and resistance against the occupation. �� Resistance will only stop if the occupation ends," the Islamic Jihad said.

Which means that Haniyeh's government will have to decide whether to let the Islamic Jihad carry on and suffer the threatened consequences, or have security men stop them.

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