"The tens of thousands of Palestinians who burst out of Gaza into Egypt this week in search of food, fuel and medicine have temporarily broken the siege that had tightened like a noose around this teeming territory ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June," the respectable British newspaper said.

"Like the lid coming off a pressure cooker, the blown-up border fence has avoided a bigger explosion – for now. But Gaza’s humanitarian disaster and conflict shows every sign it could escalate into war if it is not brought under control."

A human tide of Palestinians swarmed out of Gaza into Egypt for the second day on Thursday after Palestinians blew open the border in a bid to break a punishing Israeli blockade.

The United Nations said at least 700,000 Gazans — nearly half the territory's population of 1.5 million — have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies.

The Times said this siege is not only wrong; it is almost wholly counterproductive, describing Israel's tactic of "collective punishment" as "illegal."

"Targeting a civilian population is prohibited by international law: there is no debate to be had about it."

The Israeli government last week blocked fuel and aid shipments into Gaza. Last weekend Gaza’s power went off after Israel suspended fuel supplies.

This comes amid air strikes that killed up to 40 Palestinians, including children and women. Early on Friday, two Israeli air strikes on cars killed at least four Palestinians in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

The Rafah border area resembled a busy bazaar on Thursday. Stands selling falafel and other fast-foods sprouted up to cater to the throngs of shouting, jostling people, intent on buying goods on the Egyptian side of the border.

"They want everything because there's nothing in Gaza," pharmacist Hajj Khalil told AFP, dumbfounded by the rush on his stocks which have left his shop shelves virtually empty, like those of many others in Rafah and the nearby town of El-Arish.

"The only things I have left are beauty products. Antibiotics sold out the quickest. Now I've sold everything and I'm waiting for more stocks to come from Cairo."

End Isolation

The Financial Times said it is time that Israel and the United States rethought their position towards Hamas as their isolation policy has failed.

"Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel," it said.

They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new elections, it added.

The United States blocked again Thursday night, January 24, a UN Security Council non-binding statement urging Israel to end its deadly blockade of the Gaza Strip and calling to an end to the rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, insists that the crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza is a "self-defense" move in the face of rockets fired from the impoverished territory controlled by Hamas.

After consulting with Washington, the US delegation in the UN put forward a series of oral amendments, including a call for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian fighters in 2006 and a condemnation of "terrorism" under all its forms.

Most of the US amendments were deemed irrelevant and unacceptable by Arab countries which feel strongly that the council has to react to the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents by Israel in reprisals for the rocket attacks.

"Israel should take note that 14 members of the Security Council, a significant number of them friends of Israel, are saying that this humanitarian situation in Gaza cannot be tolerated," the Palestinian observer to the UN, Ryad Mansour, retorted.

It was agreed that a new attempt would be made Friday to overcome US objections to a text accepted by the council's 14 other members.

HEYET Net- Islamonline