Israel’s defense minister warns absence of peace deal with Palestinian could mean apartheid

Barak: Peace with Palestinians or apartheid

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister has warned that if Israel does not reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, it will either become a binational state or an undemocratic “apartheid” state.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Tuesday comments were made in an address to a security conference north of Tel Aviv.

Israeli leaders rarely use the term “apartheid” in connection to the Palestinians. The term, however, has been used by Israel’s harshest critics to accuse it of using apartheid tactics against the Palestinians.

Barak said if Israel controls the West Bank and Gaza but does not allow Palestinians to vote, “that will be an apartheid state.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian militants claimed Tuesday they had sent a barrage of floating barrels filled with explosives toward Israel’s beaches to avenge the killing of a Hamas leader in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

Police cordoned off beaches, ordered surfers out of the water and deployed robotic bomb squads along a large swath of southern Israel’s coastline after two explosive-laden barrels washed up on shore, ready to blow up.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas and hinted at retaliation.

Abu Saed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza faction with close ties to Hamas, said the attack was meant to avenge the killing last month of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a veteran Hamas operative who Israeli defense officials say was involved in smuggling rockets into Gaza.

Hamas says Israeli Mossad agents ambushed al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room, immobilized him with an electrical shock and strangled him to death.

Hamas and its Iranian patrons have accused Israeli agents of killing him.

Israel has refused to comment on the allegations.

“We confirm that there are still many of these charges in the ocean, and they haven’t exploded yet. The Zionist enemy should expect more of these operations from the hands of the Palestinian resistance,” Abu Saed said, standing alongside five other gunmen in military fatigues.

A joint statement from his group and two other small factions — Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — said they sent eight bombs and detonated them by remote control. Hamas did not sign the statement.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu accused Hamas, which rules Gaza, of being behind the operation, with support from Iran and Syria.

“We view with great severity the Hamas operation near the Gaza beach, and we will respond accordingly,” he said at a news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He did not elaborate.

On Monday afternoon, a barrel bomb washed up on the beach of Ashkelon, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Gaza. A few hours later, another one was found at Ashdod, six miles (10 kilometers) farther north.

Each had about 22 pounds (10 kilograms ) of explosives, police said. They said bombs of that size could cripple small civilian vessels but not Israeli warships.

The barrels should not pose a threat to shipping lanes in the east Mediterranean since the tides would just carry them back to shore.

The second barrel blew up as a police robot was examining it, sending the tractor-like device tumbling through the air, according to witnesses. A police bomb squad defused the other one. No one was hurt.

Maritime authorities warned sailors and fishermen to be alert to possible dangers in the waters. In Ashdod, a crane-like robot crawled along the beach, prodding suspicious objects.

The military linked the barrels to two explosions at sea on Friday, aimed at Israeli ships. Israeli analysts speculated that the beach barrels might have been meant for ships but floated ashore instead.

“The attack was an intended terrorist attack that failed,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He did not refer to the Hamas threat of retaliation.

On Tuesday, Iran joined Hamas in publicly accusing Israel of carrying out the al-Mabhouh assassination, calling it “yet another example of state-sponsored Israeli terrorism.”

Israel, the EU and the United States shun Hamas as a terror group. Hamas overran Gaza in 2007, expelling forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank.

In response, Israel clamped a blockade on Gaza, allowing only essential humanitarian supplies to enter.

Last winter, Israel launched a massive three-week offensive in Gaza to try to stop years of near-daily rocket barrages by Palestinian militants, killing about 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

Since then, rocket fire has dropped considerably, and Hamas has been seen to keep an informal cease-fire, though other groups have attempted to carry out attacks against Israel.

A rocket exploded in Israel on Tuesday, the military said, causing no damage. A previously unknown Palestinian militant group claimed responsibility on an Islamic Web site.

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Associated Press writer Rizek Abdel Jawad in Gaza City contributed to this report.