Israel has solicited bids for building a 25m-deep trench between Egypt and Gaza that would block Palestinian arms smuggling after Israel withdraws from the coastal strip next year.
The trench would cost millions, and military officials said Thursday it remains unclear whether more Palestinian homes would have to be demolished to make room for it.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Israel has razed hundreds of Gaza homes in recent years, including some in a large offensive last month, to expose smuggling tunnels. In the Rafah refugee camp on the border with Egypt, the demolitions have displaced more than 13,000 Palestinians.
Palestinian officials denounced the trench plan, saying Israel is trying to choke Gaza on all sides.
"Ditches and canals in Gaza, that's how you turn the Palestinians into prisoners in their own cities," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. The plan still needs Cabinet approval.
On Thursday, the Defense Ministry published a tender for a trench that would be 4km long and 25m deep. Military officials said the trench would be nearly 120m wide and perhaps be lined with cement, but for ecological reasons would not be filled with water.
Once the bids are received in a month or two, the Defense Ministry will decide whether a trench is feasible, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
The trench would run along an Israeli military patrol road between Gaza and Egypt that is up to 200m wide and cuts into the Rafah camp.
One security official said Israel would have to widen the road to at least 300m to make room for the trench, meaning hundreds more Palestinian homes would have to be demolished. However, the military official said it would only become apparent after bids have been received whether homes will have to be razed.
In more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Palestinian militants have dug dozens of tunnels under the patrol road to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Rafah. Israel, in turn, has repeatedly raided Rafah in search of the tunnels.
The trench idea will be presented next week to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is mediating between Israel and the Palestinians on the Gaza withdrawal, which is to be concluded by the end of September next year.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to negotiate directly about the pullout with the Palestinians. Suleiman will meet separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Egypt has agreed to send dozens of military advisers to Gaza to retrain the Palestinian security forces as part of a withdrawal, and there were growing signs Thursday that Cairo would also play an increasingly active role in the West Bank as well.
Palestinian officials said Egypt would run two training centers, one in Gaza and one in the West Bank town of Jericho.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday he spoke to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about an Egyptian presence in the West Bank and Gaza. "I think that this is help that is sorely needed," Annan said.
Under Sharon's plan, Israel would evacuate 7,500 Israelis from 21 settlements in Gaza and 500 more from the West Bank.
Settler leaders have said they would not go without a struggle, but up to now stopped short of endorsing violence. However, a settler leader who once served as a top aide to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted Thursday as saying violence is legitimate. "The uprooting of a settlement is illegal and shocking and thus justifies the refusal of orders, violence, with the exception of the use of firearms," the settler leader, Uri Elitzur, was quoted as saying.
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