The Action Group for Freeing Gilad Shalit blocked tank trucks carrying fuel to Gaza Tuesday. The protesters got in the way of the tank trucks at the Karni Crossing. Then, when the trucks were diverted to the Kerem Shalom crossing, near where Shalit was stationed when he was abducted, they blocked the trucks from crossing there too.
The protesters said that the fuel “oils the cogs of the Hamas government” while it continues to hold Shalit hostage. They rejected the claims that the fuel is a humanitarian need, saying that a shortage would cause the residents of Gaza to demand that their leaders free Shalit.
A senior Hamas source told Saudi newspaper Ukaz Tuesday that Hamas has suspended the negotiations for Shalit's release until further notice, in response to the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas terrorist, was found dead in a Dubai hotel room January 20.
The source said that the negotiations have been suspended temporarily and that Hamas is facing a difficult crisis. Israel, he said, had torpedoed the completion of the Shalit deal. “The cowardly assassination was intended to shake Hamas's strong stance in view of its courageous positions in the matter of the prisoner exchange deal, and its insistence on all components of the deal.”
Other senior Hamas terrorists continue to threaten revenge attacks.
The chief of Dubai's police said meanwhile that the police would publish the photographs of the seven people who were involved in the elimination of Mabhouh and who used European passports to enter the country. “There are important developments in the investigation and their details will be published soon,” he promised. “At this point we can already say based on the method used for the murder that this was a political assassination that points to the involvement of the Israeli Mossad in the affair.”