Israel will invest tens of millions of US dollars in West Bank settlements even as it pulls out of the Gaza Strip and a few other settlements, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has proposed removing all settlements in Gaza, as well as four in the West Bank, and rapidly completing a separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.
PHOTO: EPA
Palestinians fear the move will strengthen Israel's hold over the rest of the West Bank, which they want as part of a future state.
Netanyahu announced his support for Sharon's plan Sunday, giving it a crucial boost in an upcoming referendum among the 200,000 members of Sharon's hardline Likud party.
Netanyahu told Israel Radio yesterday that he decided to support the plan after US President George W. Bush announced that Israel would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees or evacuate major Israeli population centers in the West Bank in any peace deal.
Netanyahu said he was also satisfied with Sharon's commitment to finishing the barrier, which snakes into the West Bank in parts to include some settlements, before the withdrawal begins.
Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel's commitment to the settlements that will fall on the "Palestinian" side of the barrier.
"There we are going to invest. I myself am going to approve hundreds of millions of shekels to invest in the settlements beyond the main fence," he said.
Netanyahu's plan would contradict the US-backed "road map" peace plan which requires Israel to freeze settlement construction.
Sharon told the Cabinet on Sunday that he would forge ahead with his disengagement plan, while continuing to "hit the terror organizations and their leaders."
As part of that campaign, Israel on Saturday killed Hamas' Gaza leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Hamas chose a replacement for Rantisi on Sunday, but did not disclose his name -- a sign that Israel's campaign against the Hamas leadership has put it on the defensive. Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin last month.
Hamas' ability to retaliate remained unclear. It has not managed to carry out a large-scale attack in the wake of Yassin's killing.
The killing of Rantisi set off demonstrations -- some of them violent -- across Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Arab countries.
Early yesterday, an Israeli was moderately injured when Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets at the Jewish settlement of Nisanit in the northern Gaza Strip, the army said. Five rockets, mortar shells and anti-tank missiles were fired at Gaza settlements overnight but only the Nisanit attack caused a casualty, the army said.
A Palestinian who approached a checkpoint near Kissufim in Gaza overnight was shot and killed, Palestinian security said.
The army also destroyed a house in an area near the Kfar Darom settlement known for exchanges of fire, witnesses said. The army did not comment on either incident.
The military reported dozens of minor incidents protesting Rantisi's killing throughout Sunday, most of them involving Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs.
Late Sunday, police shot two Israeli Arabs in Israel's northern Galilee region, killing one and moderately injuring the other, police said.
The police commander said the Arabs opened fire on a border police patrol in a politically motivated attack.
A police commander in northern Israel, Yaakov Borovsky, told Israel Radio there had been an increase in anti-Israeli incidents in the area in the past two months. Many Israeli Arabs identify with the Palestinians in the ongoing violence, but they rarely attack Israeli security forces.
Israel rebuffed international criticism for killing Rantisi, including criticism by several European countries.
It said Rantisi -- like Yassin -- was targeted because he directed bloody Hamas attacks against Israelis and was planning more.
Many Palestinians held the US responsible for Rantisi's death, pointing to Bush's statement last week in support of Sharon's policies as evidence it was giving Israel free rein.
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