Israel's army has developed a plan to create a "buffer zone"
inside the edge of the Gaza Strip to halt the latest wave of
Palestinian rocket attacks, military officials said Tuesday.
Such Israeli action would likely torpedo a six-month truce in
the Gaza Strip and could threaten US efforts to revive the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In a setback to those efforts, the US State Department announced
on Monday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had canceled
an upcoming visit to the region, citing the uncertain political
situation after an Israeli commission found Olmert's government
mishandled last year's war in Lebanon.
The hobbled Olmert will travel to Jordan on May 15 to meet with
King Abdullah, on the sidelines of an annual Jordanian conference
for Nobel laureates. The fitful efforts to relaunch
Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking are sure to figure in their
talks.
The Gaza cease-fire has sharply reduced fighting, but militants
continue to fire homemade rockets into southern Israel. The rocket
fire has spiked in recent days, including two more projectiles
launched Tuesday. No injuries were reported in Tuesday's attack,
the army said.
On Monday, Israel carried out a rare airstrike in Gaza,
attacking a car carrying rockets near the Israeli border, and Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert warned he was losing patience with the rocket
barrages.
The military's plan for a 300-meter-deep zone inside Gaza is one
of several options Israel is considering to counter the rocket
fire, the military officials said on condition of anonymity since
they were not allowed to discuss the plan with the media.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh, called the proposal a "dangerous idea."
"It will cause more confrontations. It won't provide stability,"
he said.
Military commanders have presented the plan to Olmert's Cabinet
but it has not yet been approved, the officials said. The plan will
be debated by senior Cabinet ministers next week, Haaretz
reported Tuesday.
Israel periodically carries out "pinpoint" operations on the
edges of Gaza to halt rocket launchings. The military's plan calls
for a greater presence that would be constant in some places, the
officials said.
The plan also calls for an increase in attacks on rocket
launchers, including airstrikes on high-ranking militants who
oversee the firings, the officials said. Olmert has already agreed
to slightly expand the area in the Gaza Strip in which the army can
operate, Haaretz said.
Secret talks
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party sits in
the government with Hamas, has repeatedly condemned the rocket
attacks, but has been unable to halt them. Ending the rocket fire
is a key component of a new US proposal for easing Israeli
restrictions on Palestinian movement while also improving Israeli
security.
Olmert and Abbas have held several meetings recently, and
Haaretz said Tuesday they had opened a secret negotiation
channel.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, called the report
"baseless. There is no such thing."
The two men will meet in the West Bank town of Jericho, but no
date has been scheduled, he added.
?
Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin also said there have been no secret
talks. But she said neither the venue nor the date of the next
Abbas-Olmert meeting had been confirmed. The two will meet "very
soon," she said.
Abbas and Olmert agreed to form teams that would meet to discuss
issues relating to a future state, said a senior Palestinian
official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The teams haven't met
yet because they haven't agreed on an agenda, he said.
(China Daily via agencies May 9, 2007)
