GAZA CITY, 17 September 2005 — Days after withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, Israel yesterday announced plans to create a security zone, 150 meters deep inside Palestinian territory.
Israeli officials said the idea was mooted after thousands of people illegally streamed across Gaza’s border with Egypt since Israeli troops left the territory on Monday.
“We want to build an electric fence or wall north of the Gaza Strip to create a no-man’s land prohibiting access to the Palestinians and alleviate the danger to Israeli towns in the sector from the chaos in Gaza,” said a spokeswoman from the Defense Ministry.
“We also want to ask the Palestinians to establish their own no-man’s land of a few dozen meters, in consultation with Israel,” she added.
Palestinians protested the decision. Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib said the “unilateral” decision was proof that Israel remained an occupation force regardless of its withdrawal of all troops from Gaza following 38 years of military rule.
“Israel is working on a unilateral basis. They didn’t ask us to do this. Israel is still an occupying force,” Khatib charged.
Yesterday, Egyptian and Palestinian police fired warning shots in the air, but failed to deter thousands of people from crossing the Gaza-Egypt border without identity or customs checks.
Border controls collapsed Tuesday after Israeli troops pulled out of the area. Some 750 Egyptian border guards, deployed under a deal with Israel, were meant to hold the 12-km line but many stepped aside in the face of an overwhelming flood of people.
An Egyptian policeman fired his rifle in the air when a group of Palestinians tried to make a new breach in the barrier, close to the main gap near the divided town of Rafah. Palestinian police also shot in the air in a separate incident after an argument broke out between them and a group of people trying to break through into Egypt, said an Egyptian official, who asked not to be named. “It was just to frighten people and disperse them, and it didn’t lead to any injuries,” said the official.
The main Salaheddin Gate in the town which straddles the border remained open for the third straight day despite Israeli complaints of anarchy and arms smuggling.
The Egyptian authorities have said they intend to close the border and implement a border agreement with the Israelis when the Palestinians finish celebrating the Israeli departure.
But several deadlines have come and gone without the Egyptian border guards reimposing controls. A senior Egyptian official said Egypt was reluctant to use force against Palestinians so soon after the Israelis had left. Most of the travelers have been Palestinians buying cheap Egyptian goods or visiting relatives they have not seen for years, but Palestinian officials said Thursday that some had brought guns into Gaza.
Israeli media reports said the Israeli Army may move troops to buffer the long-quiet border with Egypt, alarmed that Palestinian fighters might find it easier to bring in weapons without an Israeli military presence on the frontier.
“(Israel) cannot accept a continued situation where the border will be entirely porous. What is happening in Gaza in recent days is complete anarchy,” Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio.
— Additional input from agencies
