Israel to seek hundreds of millions of pull-out aid
Israel will ask Washington for hundreds of millions of dollars to help foot the bill for next month’s €1.6bn evacuation of the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements, a senior Israeli official said today.
Meanwhile, the government is considering declaring Gaza settlements off-limits to non-residents to thwart an attempt by settlers to sabotage the evacuation by flooding the area with protesters, said an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that he and Sharon might hold a summit before the pull-out, set to begin in mid-August.
They last met in June, but failed to resolve several major issues, raising doubts as to whether they could work together on the evacuation.
Yesterday, the main settlers’ group called on its followers to migrate en masse to the Gaza settlements on July 18.
Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said the government was considering sealing the area before the march, and that Sharon, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra would have final say.
Gaza was sealed briefly last week to prevent reinforcements from entering before the military stormed an abandoned hotel to remove 150 Jewish extremists, most from outside Gaza, barricaded inside.
Israeli government officials will head to Washington next week to ask for money to relocate military bases and develop the Negev Desert in southern Israel, where most of the uprooted settlers are expected to move, said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the request has not been formally made.
The delegation will ask for “several hundreds of millions of dollars,” the official said, but wouldn’t be more specific.
With just six weeks until the evacuation, Mofaz told politicians yesterday that Israel planned to send 45,000 soldiers and police to evacuate the 9,000 Gaza and West Bank settlers.
The massive deployment reflects expectations of widespread resistance to the pullout, some of it possibly violent.
Extremists have already tried to disrupt life around the country by blocking roads, and have threatened to step up the resistance as the evacuation date nears.
Sharon told MPs he had instructed security forces “not to allow the blocking of roads, damage to communications’ structures, scattering of nails (on the roads) and such things. The order is unequivocal – life is not to be disrupted. We shall not allow it.”
Sharon also said Israel had made it clear to the Palestinian Authority it would respond harshly if Palestinian militants fire on soldiers and settlers during the pull-out.
“If there is fire during the evacuation, our response will be very harsh, possibly so harsh that it would destroy the whole process,” he said.
Late yesterday, Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef met Mofaz to discuss co-ordinating the withdrawal, but no agreements were announced.
The World Bank, meanwhile, is promoting a “sunken” road linking the non-contiguous territories of Gaza and the West Bank, and foreign security inspectors at Gaza’s future airport and seaport, to give Palestinians freedom of movement while keeping Israelis safe after Israel’s pullout.
