SECURITY CABINET DECLARES HAMAS-RULED GAZA A

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 002810 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/20/2017 TAGS: PHUM PTER PGOV KWBG IS SUBJECT: SECURITY CABINET DECLARES HAMAS-RULED GAZA A "HOSTILE ENTITY" REF: A. JERUSALEM 1962 ¶B. TEL AVIV 2742 Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones, Reason 1.4 (b) (d) ¶1. (U) The Israeli security cabinet, meeting shortly before the Secretary's arrival on the morning of September 19, decided to declare Hamas-ruled Gaza a "hostile entity." The full range of measures this designation entails is not yet clear, (and according to the Foreign Minister not yet decided),but among the expected steps are a reduction of the supply of electricity to Gaza, with the option of further cuts in response to future Qassam rocket attacks; reducing the supply of gasoline but not of diesel fuel; the elimination of "luxury goods" among the humanitarian relief supplies that continue to flow through the Kerem Shalom crossing; and further restrictions on the passage of people through the Erez Crossing. The security cabinet made clear that the decision would not apply to the supply of water. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at a press conference with the Secretary, stressed that the measures would not affect SIPDIS humanitarian relief supplies. In response to a journalist's question, Livni asserted that Israeli legal experts had reviewed the measures and determined that they were legal under international law. ¶2. (C) As reported in ref (a),the IDF refused to allow UNRWA and USAID local staff to depart Gaza through Erez on September 19. The Israeli press reported September 20 that a number of Palestinian students who had previously been informed that they would be allowed to leave Gaza to study abroad were denied passage. In addition, European relief workers were denied entry to Gaza the same day. The duration and extent of this aspect of the "hostile entity" designation remains unclear. MOD Secretary BG Eitan Dangot told the Ambassador that the decision to close Erez Crossing was likely a security measure taken in response to threat information and not part of the "hostile entity" measures. Dangot thought Erez would reopen for at least limited crossings of authorized persons after the Yom Kippur holiday weekend. A senior IDF officer told DAO, however, that Israel may decide to close Gaza to international NGO's in the future. ¶3. (C) The security cabinet's decision reportedly followed a recommendation by Defense Minister Barak and IDF Chief of General Staff Ashkenazi, but its intellectual origins go back at least two weeks earlier to the suggestion by Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon that Israel temporarily cut off the supply of electricity and fuel to Gaza in response to Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and other Israeli communities bordering Gaza. The cabinet reportedly decided against Ramon's proposal out of concern that it would be seen as collective punishment. Following the Qassam rocket attack on the IDF base at Zikim on September 11 that resulted in scores of wounded recruits (ref b),however, the attitude within the security cabinet evidently shifted to the need to increase the costs to Hamas of allowing the continued firing of Qassams by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. ¶4. (C) Comment: Our assessment is that these measures are meant to tighten the squeeze on Hamas through harsh but still non-lethal means while at the same time staving off pressure from the Israeli public for a large-scale military operation in Gaza. If these measures do not succeed in convincing Hamas to stop the Qassams, or if there is a terrorist strike that results in significant Israeli civilian casualties, however, the large-scale military option may become unavoidable from the GOI's perspective. ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** JONES