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Israel wants control over Gaza borders

Israel wants to keep control over the borders of the Gaza Strip even after its historic pullout, citing fears yesterday that the Palestinian territory will turn into a bastion of militancy awash with weapons.

The plan, backed by a ministerial commission, was quickly slammed by the Palestinian Authority, which insists Israel can only end its 38-year occupation of Gaza by ceding all sovereignty of the tiny strip of land.

Although the Cabinet is set to approve the deployment of 750 Egyptian guards along the border to clamp down on smuggling and allow all Israeli soldiers to leave, officials still want to rubber-stamp goods coming into Gaza.

"We know very well that the Gaza Strip has to be open to the outside world, but are not going to allow it to be transformed into a terrorist arsenal," an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.

"The problem is not so much the crossing of people as goods, taking account of the fact that arms could be brought in if Israel gives up all control," the official said.

Consequently, Israel is insisting that the terminal in the Gaza-Egypt town of Rafah be transferred further south, where the Egyptian, Gazan and Israeli borders meet.

Shifting the terminal to the kibbutz of Kerem Shalom would allow Israel to continue to control the passage of goods entering Gaza, conduct security checks and exercise customs control over products intending to be sold in Israel.

The Palestinian Authority believes that moving the border terminal will merely perpetuate Israel's occupation of Gaza after all settlers and soldiers are finally recalled from the territory after a near four-decade occupation.

"We reject this statement completely. It is impossible to accept that the Rafah border will still be under Israeli control," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

"We are in contact with the American administration and the quartet to oblige Israel to leave Rafah and put in their place a third party," he added, referring to the US, UN, EU and Russian grouping that drafted the region's peace blueprint.

If the Palestinians insist on direct passage between Egypt and Gaza, the Israeli official said, Israel would simply stop collecting customs duties for the Palestinians, which would cost them millions of dollars each year.

The immediate aftermath of the eviction of all Jewish settlers has been marked by fresh bloodshed.

An Israeli border policeman was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian near a disputed religious site venerated by both Jews and Muslims, one day after Israeli troops shot dead five militants in the northern West Bank.

Israeli police also arrested two suspects who admitted to hurling a pig's head into the courtyard of a southern Tel Aviv mosque last week, Israeli media said yesterday.

The pig's head was dressed in a kaffieh, or traditional Arab head dress, and had the words "the Prophet Mohammed" written on it.

The 31-year-old woman and 34-year-old man were both known to the police for their prostitution-related activities.

A second pig's head, which the two allegedly planned to throw into the mosque at a later time, was found in the fridge of their Tel Aviv brothel.

They said in their interrogation with the Shin Bet security service that they wanted to provoke rioting among Arab Israelis and stop or delay the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

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