GAZA CITY, 9 May 2007 — The Israeli Army has proposed the creation of a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip to halt the latest wave of Palestinian rocket attacks. A government approval of such a zone will likely raise tension as life for Palestinians living close to the security fence is already difficult with several civilians killed in the past in Israeli fire.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the five-point plan presented by the Israeli Army’s Southern Commander M.G. Yoav Galant consists of creating a 300-meter-deep zone on the Palestinian side of the fence separating the Strip from Israel. This will presumably keep the Palestinians planning to fire Qassam rockets into Israel at a distance from the fence.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, called the proposal a “dangerous idea.”
“It will cause more confrontations. It won’t provide stability,” he said.
The military has presented the plan to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert but it has not yet been approved.
Such Israeli action would likely torpedo a six-month truce in the Gaza Strip and could threaten US efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In a setback to those efforts, the State Department announced Monday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled an upcoming visit to the region, citing the uncertain political situation after an Israeli commission found Olmert’s government mishandled last year’s war in Lebanon.
Olmert will travel to Jordan on May 15 to meet with King Abdallah, on the sidelines of an annual Jordanian conference for Nobel laureates. The fitful efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking are sure to figure in their talks.
The Gaza cease-fire has sharply reduced fighting, but Palestinian fighters continue to fire homemade rockets into southern Israel.
