Israel has agreed in principle to evacuate a road along the Gaza-Egypt border that has been a major flashpoint of violence in recent years, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said after a Palestinian official warned that continued Israeli military patrols there would invite attacks.
Israeli officials said in the past that soldiers would need to remain in the Philadelphi corridor after the planned Gaza Strip pullout this summer to prevent weapons smuggling, but a new spirit of cooperation in the region following last month's election of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian leader could make a pullback more palatable.
Also Friday, the Haaretz daily newspaper published a proposed revision to the route of Israel's separation barrier that runs closer to Israel's boundary with the West Bank but also puts two major West Bank settlement blocs on the Israeli side of the barrier. Israel's Cabinet is scheduled to vote on the new route today. The Cabinet was also expected to approve Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan. Under the Cabinet resolution, the most isolated Gaza settlements -- Netzarim, Morag and Kfar Darom -- would be evacuated first, followed by four northern West Bank settlements, then the main southern Gaza settlement bloc of Gush Katif and finally three northern Gaza settlements.
The pullout will take three months, beginning in July, with separate Cabinet votes on each of the four phases.
Sharon has demanded the Palestinians halt all attacks during the pullout, and Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas security adviser, told Israel Radio on Friday that the withdrawal would not take place under Palestinian fire.
But Dahlan also called on Israel to evacuate the Philadelphi road, saying it could turn into another Chebaa Farms, a disputed area on the Israel-Lebanon border where Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas periodically attack Israeli soldiers.
Government legal experts have indicated Israel would need to leave the corridor as part of the pullout if it wanted to officially end its occupation of Gaza under international law. But some officials worried that leaving the Philadelphi road would allow militants to increase weapons smuggling and even bring in advanced missiles to attack Israel.
The atmosphere has improved, however, with Abbas' election and the new cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians.
Peres, when asked if a handover of the road had been agreed to in principle, told Israel Radio: "Yes, but in principle takes less time than in practice."
"I think we are trying to find a solution for it that would allow freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza. Otherwise, they will be closed in from all sides," he said.
Peres said any solution would have to be mediated with Egypt, which has offered to send 750 border guards to the area to prevent weapons smuggling. The Philadelphi road has been perhaps the most volatile strip of land during the past four years of violence. Israel, which has uncovered a series of weapons smuggling tunnels running under the border, guards the corridor with watchtowers armed with heavy machine guns and vehicle patrols.
Palestinian gunmen often attack Israeli positions from the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the road. The army has responded by demolishing rows of hundreds of houses near the road.
Peres, leader of the dovish Labor Party, also said he would support the new separation barrier route, which was redrawn after Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the previous route was needlessly disruptive to Palestinians' lives.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion