Accord to demolish settlers’ homes: Gaza Strip pullout
AL QUDS, June 19: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured an agreement from Israel and the Palestinians for settler homes to be razed after the Gaza Strip pullout, hailing the withdrawal as an historic chance for peace.
Wrapping up a brief tour of Israel and the West Bank that saw her meet leaders on both sides, Ms Rice reiterated the need to work more closely over the pullout which should begin in eight weeks.
She also had strong praise for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas over their efforts to end the bloodshed which has blighted their region.
The Israeli housing ministry, however, said it was seeking tenders to build 700 new homes in the West Bank ignoring warnings by the US secretary of state not to ‘create facts on the ground’.
The Israeli prime minister welcomed Ms Rice’s efforts towards peace but Israeli officials admitted many differences over Gaza were still to be resolved with the Palestinians.
Ms Rice said both sides agreed that the homes occupied by some 8,000 settlers would do little to address the housing needs of the 1.3 million Palestinians.
“The view is that there are better land uses for the Palestinians to better address their housing needs,” she told a news conference before heading to Jordan on the next leg of her Middle East tour.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the houses could have remained standing. “It was their choice. If they (Palestinians) wanted them they could have had them,” he told AFP.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said they had always wanted the homes to be demolished.
“We have always stipulated our position that all such buildings should be demolished and the rubble taken away, in accordance with the international law,” he told AFP.
Ms Rice said the pullout was an historic opportunity to advance the wider Middle East peace process.
“We are now about to go through an historic step that could accelerate what is possible for us to do,” she said.
After talks with Mahmud Abbas on Saturday, Condoleezza Rice warned that time was running out for both sides to step up their efforts to coordinate the withdrawal.
The top US diplomat recognised the ‘courageous and difficult step’ that Ariel Sharon was taking by undertaking the first Israeli pullout from occupied Palestinian territory.
She also praised Mahmud Abbas’s determination for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and ‘deep concern about the future of his people’.
The Israeli prime minister agreed ‘a smooth and successful’ disengagement ‘in coordination with the Palestinians will help energize the political process under the roadmap’.
The internationally-drafted peace plan which aims to create an independent Palestinian state has largely stalled since its 2003 launch.
A senior Israeli official said that despite the agreement on the house demolitions, major differences remained, particularly over access in and out of Gaza.
Israel is planning to retain control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
“The critical issue now is the crossing points. Concern is a very mild description for what we feel,” said the Israeli official.
A Palestinian and an Israeli soldier were killed after a military post along the border was ambushed on Sunday.
Ariel Sharon is hoping that a voluntary pullout will enable Israel to entrench its settlements in the West Bank.
