TEL AVIV: Israel plans to build 3,000 more homes in Ariel, a major Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israeli media reports quoted Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim as saying yesterday.
The YNet and Walla Web sites, reporting on a visit by Boim to Ariel, said he announced that Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had approved the construction of 3,000 housing units in the settlement, where some 18,000 Israelis live.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office denied yesterday the reports that Israel will build 3,000 homes in Ariel.
“The Prime Minister’s Office and the Defence Ministry have no knowledge whatsoever of an alleged approval to build 3,000 dwelling units in Ariel and we really don’t know where this number comes from,” a Sharon spokesman said, reading from a statement.
A US-backed peace road map calls for a halt to Israeli settlement expansion, but Sharon has said more housing must be built for settlers in the West Bank to accommodate the natural population growth.
Israel completed the evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank on August 23 under Sharon’s plan to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians.
Palestinians, while welcoming the Gaza pullout, have noted Sharon’s pledge to hold on to major West Bank settlement blocs in any future peace deal.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said yesterday that the Israeli plans to build 3,000 new housing units in Ariel would destroy the Middle East peace process.
“Israel is presenting 3,000 reasons why it is undermining the peace process,” Erakat said. “This will destroy the possibility of a Palestinian state and the two-state solution.”
Also yesterday, Israel’s army drove Palestinian security commanders through the rubble of demolished Gaza settlements in a rare show of cooperation before handing them over next week.
The tour, the first glimpse Palestinian officials have had inside the razed settlements, was meant to let Palestinian security forces plan an orderly deployment after the Israeli military pulls out, Israeli security sources said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to deploy thousands of police on the heels of departing Israeli troops to prevent resistance fighters and ordinary Palestinians from rushing in and seizing property.
But underscoring the problems Abbas faces in imposing order, Palestinian police fired in the air and used teargas to disperse hundreds of protesters rallying in the Gaza town of Khan Younis to demand jobs. Seven policemen and three civilians were injured, officials said.
His main challenge will be keeping armed factions in check.
Resistance groups have largely observed a seven-month-old truce with Israel but say they will reassess the situation at the end of the year.
The fighting in Khan Yunis exposed the anger of the Gaza Strip’s underclass, devastated by the economic toll of the five-year Palestinian uprising, and resentful of the Palestinian Authority for failing to alleviate their poverty.
Men and teenagers, in light blue school uniforms, hurled concrete, fire bombs and metal bars at riot police near Khan Yunis’s municipal building and police station.
They set tires on fire and ripped down an electricity transformer, some sped by on bicycles and pedalled fast when police chased them.
n GAZA CITY: Three armed groups affiliated to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’s ruling Fatah Party yesterday flouted calls to disarm after Israel completes its historic pullout from the occupied Gaza Strip.
“We cannot allow anyone to destroy our happiness in our victory.
We reject having any Israeli remain at the Rafah border crossing and we cannot allow Gaza to be under siege,” said a joint statement.
“Resistance is legal and there is no question that if the occupation continues we cannot let our weapons go at any price,” added the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Abu Rish Brigades and the Fatah Falcons.
They vowed that the resistance would continue until Israel released all Palestinian prisoners, allowed all refugees and Palestinian exiles to return and Jerusalem was “forever” the capital of a Palestinian state.
n An explosion destroyed a house after nightfall yesterday in Gaza City, killing four and injuring at least 30 others, residents and officials said.
It was not clear what caused the blast in the Shajaiyeh neighbourhood, near the border with Israel. The house belonged to a well-known family of Hamas supporters, the residents said. Three nearby buildings were set on fire, rescue workers said.
Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa called the blast “mysterious” and said security officers were investigating.
One possibility is that militants were preparing a bomb, but it exploded prematurely.
The Israeli military said it had nothing to do with the blast.                     – Agencies




photo: Palestinian demonstrators hurl concrete, fire bombs and metal bars at riot police in the Gaza strip city of Khan Yunes yesterday. At least 16 people were injured when hundreds of unemployed men and teenagers clashed with security forces in the second day of violent protests in the southern Gaza Strip, denouncing the Palestinian Authority for failing to provide them with jobs.                     – AFP 
Last update on: 6-9-2005