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AL QUDS, June 17: Israel set in motion a plan on Thursday to dig a moat along the Gaza-Egypt border, inviting contractor bids for the project meant to prevent arms reaching Palestinian militants through tunnels.
The defence ministry published the bid notice 11 days after the cabinet approved in principle a Gaza withdrawal plan, under which Israel would keep a narrow corridor on the Egyptian frontier pending possible security arrangements with Cairo.
Inviting bids by July 12, the ministry said the southern Gaza Strip "canal" would be 15 metres to 25 metres deep and stretch four kilometres. "This is the beginning of turning the Gaza Strip into a big prison," Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said, comparing the trench to the barrier Israel is constructing in the West Bank with the declared aim of stopping suicide bombers.
The notice, in Israeli newspapers, did not give the width of the canal - a figure crucial to determining whether any Palestinian homes along the "Philadelphi Corridor" buffer zone adjacent to Rafah refugee camp would need to be demolished.
It was not clear whether the moat would be filled with water, as Israeli military sources had suggested last month, or would be dry. The ministry invited contractors to tour the project site and said one-year contracts would be issued, renewable for an additional 12 months.
Israel's Defence Ministry and the army declined to elaborate on the project. But Israel radio's military affairs correspondent quoted defence sources as saying the moat would be built along the Philadelphi strip.
DEMOLITIONS: The multi-million dollar plan was floated last month by the Israeli military as a way to reduce weapons smuggling into southern Gaza after 13 soldiers were killed in three ambushes.
Palestinian officials have said such a project would lead to more houses being bulldozed in the Rafah camp, the scene of a six-day Israeli army operation in May which the UN relief agency UNRWA said made 575 people homeless.
The army has said it had found and destroyed more than 80 tunnels used by militants in the past three years and commanders have voiced fears the Palestinians could seek to bring in longer-range weapons to fire at Israeli cities.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians envisages the removal by the end of 2005 of all 21 Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza and four of the 120 Israel has built in the West Bank. In a compromise with right-wing hardliners in his cabinet, Mr Sharon agreed to put off any evacuations until a further ministerial vote in nine months' time. -Reuters
