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PM Sharon (AP file photo)
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| By Associated Press August 12, 2005 |
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Israel could eventually relinquish more West Bank settlements, beyond the four to be dismantled in coming weeks, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested in an interview published Friday. He reiterated, however, that Israel would keep major West Bank settlement blocs in any peace deal.
The Israeli Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement it wants to complete the withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank already by Sept. 4, rather than in mid-September, the original target date. The forcible removal of settlers from their homes there is to begin next week.
The deadline was moved up even as military sources raised to 3,000 the number of people they estimate have entered Gaza settlements to bolster resistance.
Also Friday, a private economic foundation bought most of the greenhouses in Gaza settlements for $14 million, and will hand them over to the Palestinians, said Yossi Beilin, leader of the dovish Israeli Yahad Party. By keeping the greenhouses intact, the Economic Cooperation Foundation can ensure employment for thousands of Palestinians after the pullout, said Beilin, who heads the foundation.
Initially, a U.S. government agency, USAID, had been negotiating with the Gaza settlers to buy the greenhouses. However, the Palestinian Authority has said it would object to the use of government funds for such a deal, because it would be seen as paying compensation to the settlers.
Sharon, meanwhile, told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that "the settlement blocs will remain" in Israeli hands, reiterating his oft-stated policy. "I never replied when asked what the boundaries of the settlements blocs are -- and not because I'm not familiar with the map."
Asked whether Israel would eventually pull out of several small West Bank settlements, he replied: "Not everything will be there. The issue will be raised during the final status talks with the Palestinians."
Sharon said he is still convinced the withdrawal from Gaza will benefit Israel in the long-run.
"I have no regrets," he said. "Even if I had known the level of (settler) resistance, I would have done it."
When Sharon decided more than a year ago to quit Gaza, captured 38 years ago, he reasoned that would would make it easier for Israel to hold on to the major West Bank settlement blocs, where most of the 240,000 settlers live.
The boundaries of those blocs are in dispute, with an especially controversial plan being Israel's program to build 3,650 housing units in an unsettled area of West Bank land outside Jerusalem.
Israel's determination to hold on to and expand these blocs could cloud hopes that the impending withdrawal from Gaza would restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Defense Ministry has modified its target date for completing the Gaza evacuation, which is to begin Wednesday, because 55,000 soldiers and police will be involved in the forcible removal of resisters -- about 10,000 more than originally planned, security officials said.
In all, 9,000 settlers are to be uprooted.
U.S. President George W. Bush endorsed the withdrawal in an interview broadcast Thursday on Israel TV. "The disengagement is, I think, a part of making Israel more secure and peaceful," he said.
Within Gaza, there were conflicting signs of the impending evacuation deadline. At the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, supermarket shelves were half-empty, with basic supplies such as oil, flour and eggs all but cleaned out. A nearby clothing store was advertising a huge sale.
But a fully stocked toy and stationery store was charging full prices.
Secular Nissanit, by contrast, was a virtual ghost town late Thursday.
Furniture, windows and even red roof tiles in what had been a community of 1,100 had been removed from many of the houses, leaving them empty shells. Yards were filled with boxes and broken hulks of plastic furniture. A small pink bike lay abandoned next to one house.
Tens of thousands of anti-pullout protesters filled a square in downtown Tel Aviv on Thursday night, vowing to block the withdrawal.
Settler leaders said they would send thousands toward Gaza next week in an attempt to reinforce the resistance. On Friday, the military estimated that 3,000 non-residents have entered Gaza in recent months to make things more difficult for evacuating forces. Earlier this week, it put the number at 2,000.
At Morag, one of the more militant Gaza settlements, crude holes smashed through the outside walls of second-floor attics were testimony to the illegal presence of reinforcements. The holes, and the ladders propped up underneath them, allow access to the strangers who have come to the settlement to beef up the opposition.
The Palestinian Authority is anxious for a smooth handover that would prove its ability to control volatile Gaza after the Israelis depart. Militant factions, however, are trying to create the impression that they are driving out the Israelis by force, and have been firing rockets and mortars at Gaza settlements and nearby Israeli towns daily.
In Gaza early Friday, about 1,000 armed and masked Hamas militants trained to infiltrate and attack Jewish settlements. It wasn't clear whether this signaled an intent by the militant group to fire on settlers and evacuation forces during the impending pullout.
A spokesman for the group, who identified himself as Abu Anas, said, "We will keep our weapons in hand until we liberate all our land. Gaza is the beginning. We will not lay down our weapons after the Zionists withdraw from Gaza because the road ahead is long."
The Palestinian Authority's information minister and deputy prime minister, Nabil Shaath, said in response that the government would "not permit two authorities in Palestine."
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