JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" on Wednesday 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 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare for a U.S.-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 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 Rice will meet President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.
Abbas set up a Western-backed government in the occupied West Bank after Hamas Islamists routed fighters from his Fatah faction and seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Hamas has spurned Western calls to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice would discuss the Israeli declaration during her meeting later on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
"We will talk to them about it but they have said this was not intended to affect the humanitarian situation in Gaza," McCormack said.
PRESSURE
Faced with frequent cross-border rocket salvoes which the Israeli military has been unable to stop, Olmert has been under pressure from right-wing members of his government to order a broad ground operation in the Gaza Strip to confront militants.
The security cabinet opted instead several weeks ago to weigh cutting power to the area, sanctions Israeli officials acknowledged could be seen as a violation of international law.
By formally defining the Gaza Strip as an enemy entity, Israel could argue that it cannot be bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory to supply utilities to the population of 1.5 million.
A senior U.N. official, however, cautioned Israel against cutting essential services to Gaza.
"Any action to cut off electricity and other essentials is against international humanitarian law, and Israel should consider this very carefully before any actions that it takes," the official said.
Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Palestinians say it is still under occupation because Israel controls its borders, air space and coastal waters.
According to Israeli and Palestinian officials, Gaza's population uses approximately 200 megawatts of electricity, out of which 120 are provided directly from Israeli power lines, 17 are delivered from Egypt and 65 are produced at a plant in Gaza.
The territory and its power station are also dependent on Israeli fuel supplies, some funded by the European Union.
Beginning a visit to the region, Rice said "critical issues" would be tackled at the Middle East conference, a meeting that Palestinians hope will move them closer to statehood.
She said she hoped her trip would build momentum ahead of the gathering and bridge differences on core matters -- borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security.
"The idea that somehow the president of the United States would call an international meeting so that we could all have a photo-op is very far-fetched," said Rice, who will be in the Middle East for little more than 24 hours.
(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming, Dan Williams and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr in Ramallah, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza))