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Chaos reins at Rafah crossing. (AP file)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners December 10, 2005 |
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| AP |
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Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday that Israel wouldn't lay economic siege to the impoverished Gaza Strip, a day after Israel threatened to hobble Palestinian trade if security weren't tightened immediately at Gaza's newly reopened border crossing with Egypt.
But "the Palestinians need to take action," Mofaz said, without elaborating on possible penalties.
Israel set a Sunday deadline for the Palestinians to improve security procedures, according to notes from a meeting Friday between Israeli officials and international mediators, obtained by The Associated Press.
The U.S., at a separate meeting, said the security problems were caused by technical glitches at the Rafah passage between Gaza and Egypt, and not by Palestinian failures.
In a deal wrested last month under pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel agreed to the reopening of the Rafah crossing, which it closed before quitting Gaza in September.
The agreement also called for a bus link between the non-contiguous Gaza and the West Bank, and for a significant increase in cargo traffic by the end of the year at the Karni terminal on the Gaza-Israel frontier, Gaza's main export outlet.
Israel said Friday it was freezing implementation of the entire agreement until its problems with the Rafah terminal, which reopened Nov. 26 under the supervision of European monitors, were resolved, and had no intention of reopening talks with the Palestinians until the situation improved.
Citing security considerations, Israel told international representatives Friday that it has no intention of implementing the agreement allowing bus convoys between Gaza and Judea and Samaria (the "west bank") until "better times," Haaretz reported.
The Defense Ministry said already-stringent inspections of people and goods coming into Israel from Gaza would be tightened, and that the coastal strip could lose significant customs benefits.
Israel has accused the Palestinians of violating the deal by not providing instant information on people crossing the border from Egypt into Gaza. As a result, up to 15 militants wanted by Israel, including the brother of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, were allowed in, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
"This crossing is wide open to terrorists and weapons, and jeopardizes Israel's security," Mofaz told Israel Radio. He said he asked U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch in their meeting on Friday "to do everything in his power in his meetings with the Palestinians so the issue can be settled next week."
Welch met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas later Saturday, but they didn't comment afterward.
U.S. officials told international mediators in a separate meeting on Friday that the Palestinians were complying with the Rafah agreement and that any delay in relaying information was the result of technological problems that American experts were trying to resolve, according to notes of that meeting, also obtained by the AP.
Welch told international representatives that the Americans are determined to see the convoys run by December 15, as called for in the agreement, Haaretz reported.
The chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the Israeli threat, saying the Palestinians were working to address all issues at Rafah as quickly as possible with the help of the European monitors.
"The Rafah terminal has been functioning for two weeks only, and anybody with a sane mind should not expect the border between Germany and France," he said, adding that the Europeans and not Israel should be the judges of Palestinian compliance with the agreement.
In other news Saturday, Abbas urged militant factions to extend their informal truce with Israel, known as "the calm," which is to expire at the end of the year.
The cease-fire, brokered in February, sharply reduced violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We should move ahead with this calm until security and stability have been reached in the homeland, until our people feel no fear from the threat of tanks and aircraft," Abbas said at a ceremony in Gaza City, where Palestinians laid the ground for a U.S.-funded courts complex.
On Friday, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said the militant group would not renew its truce with Israel because the Israelis had violated it.
The Palestinian Authority said Mashaal's statement appeared to be an attempt to sabotage Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 25, in which Hamas is challenging Abbas' Fatah Party.
Navy shoots dead arms smuggler off Gaza Coast
In other news, an Israeli naval boat patrolling the Gaza coast shot and killed one Palestinian in the waters near the Egyptian border, Palestinian officials said.
The army said two men were swimming over from Egypt with bags of weapons they were smuggling. When they refused to heed the military's command to halt and Palestinians on shore opened fire on the boat, the Israelis shot at the men, the army said.
Palestinian medical officials identified the slain smuggler as Nazen Farhat, 27. The second man was missing, the officials said.
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