ISRAEL - To create buffer zone in West Bank

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HoustonChron

Sept. 6, 2001, 9:29PM

Israel to create 'buffer zone' in West Bank

By KARIN LAUB Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- In an effort to seal itself from Palestinian militants, Israel is preparing to set up a military "buffer zone" in the West Bank that would be off-limits to Palestinians and permit troops to arrest intruders, officials said Thursday.

The plan drew strong objections from the Palestinians. Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said Israel was imposing collective punishment on the Palestinians. "It means more suffering for the Palestinian people," he said.

The Israeli army was to have presented the plan at a news conference Wednesday, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is visiting Moscow, intervened at the last minute and said the ideas would be debated further by the Cabinet.

Sharon suggested that he was delaying, not canceling the plan. "It's a process that is meant to happen in the future," he said before leaving Moscow.

Israel has been struggling in the last 11 months of fighting with the Palestinians to keep militants out of its territory and prevent bombing and shooting attacks.

Since last September, the army has enforced a stringent closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has kept tens of thousands of Palestinians from jobs in Israel. However, Israel's frontier with the West Bank, the so-called Green Line, is porous and many Palestinians have been able to sneak in through back roads.

Under the new plan, swaths of West Bank territory abutting the Green Line would be declared closed military areas, said David Magen, chairman of Parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, who has seen the blueprint.

The zone would range in width from a few hundred yards to about a mile and a half, Magen said. Military commentator Ron Ben-Ishai, who has seen the maps, said the military zones would not be continuous.

Palestinians would be barred from the zones, with the exception of those living there who would be issued special permits, Magen said. Intruders could be arrested, and open-fire regulations for soldiers would be eased, "especially at night," he said.

Magen said he was certain the plan would eventually be implemented. "We have no choice but to establish a buffer zone between us and the sources of terrorism," he said.

Islamic militant groups have carried out two dozen suicide bombings in recent months that have killed scores of Israelis. Almost all the assailants have come from the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is ringed by a tall fence and infiltration from there is difficult.

Zeev Schiff, the military commentator for the Haaretz daily, said the buffer zone would unilaterally alter the division of the West Bank into three zones: Areas A under Palestinian control, Areas B under joint rule and Areas C under Israeli control.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001


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