Israel's defense minister warned on Monday that he will send large forces into Palestinian neighborhoods if Israeli troops and settlers come under fire during the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer.
The military faces twin threats during the pullout -- from extremist settlers and Palestinian militants. Settlers want to stop the evacuation of all 21 settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank, while militants want to show that they are driving the Israelis out by force.
Also Monday, Israeli officials said they might leave houses in Gaza settlements intact, reversing an earlier tendency to tear them down to spare the settlers the vision of Palestinians taking them over.
PHOTO: EPA
Palestinian attacks during the Gaza withdrawal "would require us to go into Palestinian Authority territory with very, very large forces to those places which overlook the areas to be evacuated," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said.
As part of the truce declared earlier this month by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has stopped its frequent raids into Palestinian areas of Gaza.
Originally described as "unilateral disengagement," the Gaza pullout is shaping up now as a joint effort involving Israel, the Palestinians and Egypt.
The death of Yasser Arafat on Nov. 11 brought about the change. Israel, with US backing, boycotted Arafat, charging that he was involved in Palestinian violence.
However, his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke out against Palestinian attacks and cajoled militant groups into an informal ceasefire, leading to a Feb. 8 summit in Egypt where Israel and the Palestinians declared an end to four years of bloodshed. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered to coordinate the pullout with Palestinian forces to keep Gaza from falling into the hands of militants like Hamas.
Also, Egypt said it would post 750 soldiers on the Gaza-Egypt border if Israel withdraws from the border road. Israel is still considering what to do, after hundreds of raids there to search for tunnels the Palestinians use to smuggle arms and other contraband into Gaza from Egypt.
In deciding on the Gaza withdrawal last year, the Israeli Cabinet initially said it would destroy the buildings in the settlements.
However, national security adviser Giora Eiland said that would increase the cost of the withdrawal by about US$18.4 million.
"We advise against destroying the homes," Eiland told Israel Radio.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Hebron, about 1,000 students, some wearing masks and carrying toy rifles, rallied in support of Islamic Jihad and a Friday suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five Israelis, endangering the truce.
Some participants chanted, "Our beloved Jihad blew up Tel Aviv" and "No peace with Israelis." Effigies of Sharon and US President George W. Bush lay on the ground, as if dead, surrounded by fake blood.
A car bomb discovered by Israeli troops in the West Bank on Monday contained half a ton of explosives, the military said yesterday, making it the largest bomb used by Palestinian militants in more than four years of violence.
Troops discovered the vehicle parked at a junction near the town of Jenin and safely detonated it in a controlled explosion.
Regional commander Colonel Oren Avman said the bomb contained some 500kg of explosives.
"Even an armored vehicle or bus could not withstand such a huge bomb," he told Israeli Army Radio.
The wing commander of an F-16I fighter-bomber group said on Monday that the Israeli air force is training its crews for long-range bombing missions.
"Israel and the air force have understood for a fairly long time now that the threats that surround us are constantly growing and that's why steps have been taken to extend our range of action," the officer, identified only as Wing Commander D., told Israel's privately run second television channel.
"That is to say that we are training for medium and long-range missions," he said.
The television highlighted that the commander was referring to possible future missions against suspected nuclear facilities in Iran by showing footage of the new atomic power station that Iran is completing with Russian assistance.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian