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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: April 6, 2005 |
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A detailed four-week summer evacuation plan for the Gaza Strip presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday dictates wide security perimeters and covers details like removing house pets and Jewish cemeteries, according to a senior Israeli official.
The plan, worked up by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the police and the prisons service, is the most complete to date, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, anticipating what he called a "worst-case scenario" of resistance from settlers and violence by Palestinians.
The plan, called "disengagement," is to be presented to the Cabinet for approval in the next few weeks, the official said.
About 8,500 settlers live in Gaza, and though there have been signs in recent days that many might leave of their own accord, possibly relocating as a group to Israel, security officials have expressed concerns that extremists might resist evacuation violently.
Palestinian militants have an interest in demonstrating that they are evicting the Israelis from Gaza by force, but an Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave the latest assessment _ that all the Palestinian factions want the evacuation to be completed smoothly.
The security official said there also are signs that the Lebanese Hezbollah is scaling back its support of attacks by West Bank militants. The official said one factor is internal Lebanese disarray.
Israel TV reported that Israeli security has stepped up its level of alert at the most sensitive holy site in the region, a hilltop in the Old City of Jerusalem revered by Jews and Muslims. The TV report said the Shin Bet security agency had warnings that Jewish extremists would try to attack the site in an effort to stop the pullout.
Extremists plan to bring thousands of demonstrators to the site on Sunday, and Israeli media reported that Israeli police have decided to close the hilltop to all visitors that day. Israel Radio reported that Muslims would be allowed to pray there.
The pullout plan presented to Sharon includes rings of security, starting in the settlements and reaching all the way to the outskirts of Ashkelon, an Israeli city about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Gaza. Police will be on the inner circles, charged with the actual evacuation of the settlers, while soldiers provide security on the perimeters.
Raanan Gissin, a senior Sharon aide, said a decision about whether to extend the security circles to Palestinian areas would be made close to the evacuation, set for late July. "It would depend very much on the intelligence analysis of the current threats at the time that we will actually begin implementing the disengagement," he said.
The report also addresses emotional issues like removing settlers' house pets safely and moving cemeteries from Gaza to Israel. The official said special teams from the army rabbinate would move the graves, in close consultation with the families of the dead.
Israel Radio quoted Yonatan Bassi, head of the administration dealing with implementing evacuation of the settlers, as saying that leaving Jewish cemeteries in "enemy territory" is contrary to Jewish law.
Also Wednesday, Justice Minister Tsipi Livni acknowledged that there are serious differences between Israel and the United States over Jewish settlement expansion. The issue was raised after Israeli officials confirmed plans to build 3,650 homes around the largest West Bank settlement, Maaleh Adumim, linking it to Jerusalem.
The subject is likely to come up when Sharon meets U.S. President George W. Bush early next week.
"It seems that the debate is more over whether Israel can expand the perimeters of these communities, and certainly from an American viewpoint, as well, Israel can build within them," Livni told Army Radio. "There apparently will be disputes with the Americans over this."
The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan bans all construction in settlements, but Israel claims it has an understanding with the U.S. allowing building inside the settlements.
The U.S. has consistently opposed settlement construction. "Our position is very clear that the 'road map' is important and the 'road map' calls for no expansion of the settlements," Bush said Tuesday.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Bush's statement. "I urge President Bush to exert every possible effort to stop the settlement activities and the wall in order to maintain and sustain his vision of a two-state solution," Erekat said. The "wall" refers to the separation barrier Israel is building along and inside the West Bank, incorporating Maaleh Adumim on the Israeli side.
During Sharon's last visit to Washington a year ago, Bush stated that a final peace deal with the Palestinians could not mean a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank "in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers," a reference to main settlement blocs.
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza for a state and demand removal of all 150 Jewish settlements. |
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