Israel will have to carry out a wider withdrawal from the West Bank after the initial pullback planned for next year, Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said in an interview published yesterday.
More Jewish settlements in the West Bank will be removed, even if Israel is not involved in peace talks with the Palestinians, Olmert told the Jerusalem Post.
As a part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, Israel would withdraw from all the Gaza Strip and the four West Bank settlements by the end of next year.
"There is no option of sitting and doing nothing. Israel's interest requires a disengagement on a wider scale than what will happen as part of the current disengagement plan," Olmert told the Post.
In Gaza earlier yesterday, meanwhile, about 10 Israeli tanks went into the Khan Younis refugee camp. Palestinians said three gunmen were killed by Israeli fire.
Olmert declined to define the extent of the second pull back, but said it was necessary to prevent Israel being forced to give up all the lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Sharon has said that one goal of the plan is to solidify Israel's hold on the main West Bank settlement blocs. More than 230,000 settlers live in 150 West Bank settlements, many within the large blocs.
Since the death of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, Israel has indicated that it would be willing to coordinate the withdrawal with the Palestinians and return to the negotiating table.
But Olmert, a Sharon confidant, said the second withdrawal would go ahead regardless of whether the expected talks are successful.
It was one of the clearest indications yet from an Israeli leader that the disengagement would be only the first phase of a future Israeli pullback from most of the West Bank, to make room for a Palestinian state.
Olmert also cast doubts on the ability of Mahmoud Abbas, the leading candidate in a Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election, to broker a peace deal with the Israelis.
Until now, Abbas, a pragmatist, has received tacit support from Israel and the US, who refused to deal with Arafat who was accused of fomenting terror.
Olmert told the Jerusalem Post that Abbas has not shown the ability to crack down on the militant groups, which is a key Israeli demand.
"Without this we don't see much chance for progress with the Palestinian Authority," Olmert also said.
Campaigning in the West Bank town of Tulkarem on Wednesday, Abbas called on Israel to tear down its West Bank separation barrier, telling thousands of enthusiastic supporters that the huge structure will never bring peace.
"I say to our neighbors ... no fence will bring peace or bring you security," Abbas told a rally at a Tulkarem stadium just 500m from the barrier.
In Gaza yesterday, troops raided the Khan Younis refugee camp, exchanging fire with Palestinian gunmen and leveling agricultural land. Three Hamas gunmen were killed in the fighting.
The army said Israeli forces were on an operation to stop the firing of rockets and mortars by Palestinian militants at nearby Jewish settlements and Israeli army bases. They said the air force fired missiles at two groups of militants.
Palestinian officials said one of the dead was a local Hamas field commander and that the other two were also members of Hamas.
The Palestinian Education Ministry said that three schools were closed due to the fighting and that the scheduled midterm examinations were postponed.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS