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    Israel agrees to evacuate Gaza border
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2005-02-19 10:24

    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 Friday 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 Sunday.

    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.

    Palestinians say the route, which dips into the West Bank, is an Israeli attempt to take land they want for a future state. Israel says it needs the barrier to block suicide bombers and other Palestinian attackers who have killed hundreds of Israelis.

    The new route runs much closer to the West Bank boundary but still would include between 6 percent and 8 percent of West Bank land on the Israeli side, Peres said. It also would include the large settlement blocs of Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion on the Israel side, according to Haaretz.

    "In contrast to earlier maps it does not penetrate too deeply into Palestinian territory and answers, in a reasonable manner, security needs," Peres told Israel Radio.

    Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Hassan Abu Libdeh condemned the proposed route.

    "As long as this wall exists on Palestinian land, it will be considered an illegal and aggressive action against the Palestinians and a strategic threat to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. So the Palestinian Authority will keep struggling on both the legal and political levels to remove this wall from our land," he said.

    In July, the U.N. world court ruled that barrier of concrete walls, razor wire and trenches was illegal and must be dismantled. Israel ignored the advisory ruling.

    Also Friday, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza City, demanding the release of all 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israel has agreed to release 500 next week as a gesture to Abbas, with more to follow.

    Sayed Sayem of the radical Hamas movement told the demonstrators that Israel's failure to free all the prisoners could lead Hamas to back out of the de facto truce.

    "If the prisoners are not released ... the resistance will continue and our hands will still be tied to our rifles," he said.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian Brig. Gen. Nasser Yousef, expected to be interior minister in the new Palestinian Cabinet, met with new U.S. security envoy Army Lt. Gen. William E. Ward, who was exploring ways to reform the Palestinian security forces and to strengthen the cease-fire, Abu Libdeh said.



     
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