Israel declares Gaza 'enemy entity'

Israel declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" yesterday and said it would reduce its fuel and power supplies to the Hamas-run territory in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

Hamas described the move, complicating a visit to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare for a US-led Middle East peace conference, as a declaration of war.

"They aim to starve our people and force them to bow and accept humiliating formulas that could emerge from the so-called November peace conference," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said his security cabinet approved the "enemy entity" classification and there would be "limitations on imports to the Gaza Strip and a reduction in the supply of fuel and electricity".

It gave no starting date for the sanctions, saying they would be implemented after Israeli authorities had examined the legal and humanitarian ramifications.

"We are going to ask the Americans to pressure Israel to refrain from taking such action," Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Ms Rice will meet President Mahmoud Abbas today.

Asked about the Israeli move, Ms Rice told a news conference in Jerusalem that Washington considered Hamas to be a "hostile entity" but pledged the US "would not abandon the innocent Palestinians", a reference to humanitarian aid.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who held talks with Rice, said "all the needs that are more than the humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel to the Gaza Strip".

Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction in fighting in June. Hamas, which won parliamentary elections last year, has spurned Western calls to recognise Israel and renounce violence.