JERUSALEM, 19 June 2004 — Israel was set to train a special army unit ahead of its Gaza Strip pullout as further details emerged yesterday of a massive trench to be built along the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent weapons smuggling.
In Cairo, meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss his country’s contribution to security after Israel’s withdrawal.
Neither Qorei nor Mubarak made any comment to reporters after the 30-minute meeting at the Egyptian leader’s residence.
The Jewish state will carefully screen some 2,000 soldiers to exclude any who might refuse to obey the evacuation order for ideological reasons, the Israeli daily Maariv revealed. The unit, to be commanded by Gen. Yossi Turdjman, will operate jointly with police forces.
An army spokesman confirmed that “a general from the military southern command has been mandated with supervising the military preparations and developments linked to the unilateral withdrawal.”
Settlers who are ready to leave ahead of the official four-phased withdrawal will qualify for early compensation within 10 days, the paper said.
Also in preparation for the withdrawal, the Defense Ministry has invited tenders to study the feasibility of building a massive trench along the border between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt.
The 25-meter deep trench, to be equipped with electronic devices, will initially stretch some four kilometers between the flashpoint Gaza town of Rafah and Egypt.
A second section of the moat could be dug along the entire eight-kilometer, so-called Philadelphi border axis, leading to the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian homes, Israeli media said.
Thousands of Palestinians were made homeless in Rafah last month when Israel staged its biggest offensive of the four-year intifada widening a buffer zone around the Philadelphi road by flattening homes.
In Brussels, the European Union urged Israel to halt construction of the disputed security barrier and urged Palestinians to do more to combat terror.
More than 2,000 Palestinians held weekly prayers in their fields to protest the confiscation of their land by an Israeli separation barrier being built across the West Bank.
Some 1,500 villagers joined the prayer in the rural community of Al-Zawiyah in the northern West Bank and later demonstrated against a new segment of the barrier on which Israel began working 10 days ago.
The residents clashed with Israeli troops, who used tear gas to disperse them.
A few miles further west, around 600 Palestinians from the village of Iskaka also prayed on their land and demonstrated against the confiscation of their olive groves. No incidents were reported.
And the Israeli army said it nabbed an 18-year-old Palestinian high school student in the northern West Bank for her alleged involvement in “terrorist activities” as another six male militants were arrested in Jenin.
