Israel threatens Gaza strikes to clear rocket zone

By Matthew Tostevin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel threatened on Friday to stop
Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip by
using airstrikes and shelling to enforce a buffer zone inside
the territory it abandoned three months ago.

The makeshift rockets rarely cause casualties, but could
have big political fallout as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
campaigns for re-election on the strength of a pullout from
Gaza that he said would boost Israel’s security.

Despite the withdrawal, the rocket firing has not stopped,
and Israel has mounted air and artillery strikes on Gaza.

Militants say the rockets are to avenge Israeli raids in
the occupied West Bank as well as its strikes into the Gaza
Strip.

On Thursday, four Israeli soldiers were wounded when a
rocket hit their base after Israeli troops killed three
militants in the West Bank. One rocket fell on Friday.

The Defense Ministry said the army had already been ordered
to restrict movement within the belt along the border and
security sources said that meant intensified air strikes.

But Sharon’s office said the no-go zone was not yet being
enforced.

“We will consider employing that plan and using all our
resources from the air, the sea and the ground to create a sort
of buffer which will be controlled by fire, not by the presence
of troops,” said spokesman Raanan Gissin.

Palestinians condemned the idea.

“Israeli threats, escalation and the re-occupation of Gaza
will not solve the problem, it will create problems,” said top
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

PALESTINIANS WON’T BUDGE

Palestinian forces said they had refused an Israeli request
to evacuate the border zone and were continuing their own
efforts to prevent rocket firing from amid the rubble of former
Jewish settlements at the border.

“We will not move one inch,” said Assayed Shaban, commander
of forces in northern Gaza.

The cross-border violence has quickly soured any hopes that
the Gaza pullout could lead to a quick return to peacemaking.

Israel rules out any talks on statehood in the West Bank
and Gaza until the Palestinian authorities disarm militants, a
process that is meant to start under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

That plan also calls on Israel to freeze settlement
building, but it has not complied.

Israeli security sources said further steps were being
considered if the rocket fire did not stop. These include
cutting off Gaza’s electricity — a proposal denounced by human
rights groups as collective punishment.

A ground offensive to re-occupy parts of Gaza is unlikely
unless rockets cause heavy casualties, the sources said.

The stakes are particularly high for Sharon ahead of the
election on March 28, for which the ex-general quit his
rightist Likud to move toward the political center.

Opinion polls suggest Sharon’s Kadima party has a big lead.

But more attacks, particularly from Gaza, could strengthen
the hand of his main challenger from the right, Likud’s
Benjamin Netanyahu, who denounced the Gaza pullout as a
surrender to Palestinian militants that would only encourage
attacks.

A dramatic surge in violence could also create problems for
a Palestinian parliamentary election on January 25, and
potentially force a delay.

Militants said they would keep up the barrages whatever
Israel did. “We will not tremble from these threats,” said Abu
Abir of the Popular Resistance Committees.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Nidal
al-Mughrabi in Gaza)