• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Israel threatens Gaza strikes to clear rocket zone

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 09:32 CST

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)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category