GAZA CITY, 29 December 2005 — As a deadline expired for Palestinians to evacuate a new security zone, Israeli artillery batteries shelled the northern Gaza Strip yesterday.
Israel’s unilateral decision to impose a “no-go zone” in the far north of the Palestinian territory comes as part of a concerted drive to thwart repeated rocket attacks launched from northern Gaza into southern Israel.
An army spokeswoman confirmed troops had opened fire in open fields in the “no-go zone” after a missile was fired from the area shortly before the 1600 GMT deadline came into effect. “It’s in direct response to that,” said the spokeswoman, describing the artillery fire as “slightly larger scale” than previous bouts of firing.
The Israeli military earlier airdropped leaflets over Gaza, written in Arabic with an accompanying map indicating the extent of the zone, warning Palestinians to keep out of the area or else endanger their lives.
The confines of the security area mainly incorporate an uninhabited area where three Jewish settlements stood, before Israel withdrew all soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip in September after a 38-year occupation. “The army is prepared to wage intensive operations in the north of the Gaza Strip against terrorist elements who fire rockets into the territory of the state of Israel,” the fliers warned.
“For your security you are warned to avoid the sectors indicated on the map from 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) Dec. 28 until further notice. Those who disregard this warning will put their lives in danger,” they added.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the application from late Monday of a decision to create the zone, taken by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel had no right to reassert control over any part of the territory, while also condemning the rocket strikes.
“Israel left the Gaza Strip and has no right to return under any pretext such as the firing of missiles which I also strongly condemn,” he said. “I ask all parties to assume their responsibilities and not give pretexts to Israel.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinians’ ruling Fatah party overcame a split yesterday that threatened to hand victory to Hamas in parliamentary elections next month, submitting a unified list of candidates. But chaos reigned in Gaza, undermining efforts by Abbas to show that he has taken control after Israel’s pullout.
Squabbling factions of Abbas’ Fatah party yesterday managed to present a single slate of candidates. The dispute pitted Abbas’ old guard, veterans who entered the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s with the late Yasser Arafat, against younger leaders who grew up in the territories. Two weeks ago they submitted competing slates for the election.
The compromise list is headed by the most popular of the young leaders, Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison. The next three slots are filled by veterans. Fatah gunmen in Gaza staged violent protests to demand their own spots on the list of candidates, briefly seizing election offices and exchanging gunfire with police.
Also, three British citizens were kidnapped at the Rafah crossing. Alongside overnight strikes on Gaza, Israeli warplanes targeted Palestinians near Beirut in response to a series of rocket attacks against a town in northern Israel from across the border with Lebanon. While there were no reported casualties in Gaza, at least two members of the PFLP-GC, a small pro-Syrian faction, were wounded in the airstrike to the south of Lebanon’s capital.
Palestinian security sources said the airstrikes had targeted roads around the northern towns of Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya.
The army said it had attacked 10 roads used by militants to reach rocket launch sites on the edge of the border into southern Israel.
Israeli commentators said Palestinian factions in Lebanon had been emboldened by what they regarded as a timid response to the Gaza rockets. “He who agrees to hold back when Qassam rockets are fired in the south, will in the end endure Katyusha rockets in the north,” said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.
— With input from agencies
