Serious confrontation between Palestine and Israel, further showdowns expected
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/3/1998

The standoff between Palestinian and Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip ended without any bloodshed this time but both sides expressed fears that the situation is volatile enough to start a military confrontation any minute in the future.

Both the Palestinian government and Israel claimed victory at the end of the showdown, which lasted from early Thursday afternoon until the early hours of Friday. Palestinian sources said that Israel agreed at the end to allow a convoy of Palestinian vehicles to pass through the controversial part of the road that connects Gaza Strip with the Jewish settlement of Gush Qatif. Israel, however, said it allowed the Palestinians a free passage until after the Palestinian government forces lifted the siege they imposed on the Jewish settlement.

Very intensive diplomacy that involved Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, the US and Israel led to a peaceful end of the showdown, the most serious since the September 1996 clashes that erupted between the two sides after Israel opened the tunnel underneath the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. All parties expressed their fear that the situation would go out of hand. Immediately after reports reached the Israeli defense minister on the standoff, he contacted US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, and PLO Executive Committee member Mahmoud Abbas, asking for their intervention. Israeli sources said that cabinet secretary Dan Naveh spoke with Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. Ross then spoke to both Erekat and Naveh. The Egyptian Ambassador to Israel, Muhammad Bassyouni, and Jordanian officials as well, have also come in with proposals and efforts to resolve the crisis. Only prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu sounded less compromising and issued direct threats to the Palestinian government that "should a similar incident repeat itself, Israel's response will be severe, and painful."

The siege went into effect at the junctions leading to at least two Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. It started after Israeli soldiers prevented a Palestinian convoy from traveling on a key route allegedly controlled by Israeli forces. Israeli officials claimed that the siege was well planned in advance while Israeli political sources in Tel Aviv did not rule out the possibility that the Palestinian government was testing Israel's mode of reaction. One of Israel's leading journalists covering the West Bank wrote in Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot Friday that the event in the Gaza Strip was "an initial step in a systematic Palestinian campaign whose end-point would be the declaration of a Palestinian state in May, 1999."

The conflict came to an end when Palestinian government Preventive Security commander in Gaza, Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, and Israeli commander of the southern district, Major General Yom Tov Samia, signed a deal that would ask all residents of both sides to return home without any delay. The Palestinian government and Israel later decided to establish a joint committee to review the situation with roads controlled by the Israeli army and are partially closed to Palestinian vehicles. The compromise, which was reached, and a Palestinian official noted Friday that an important segment of the road to Deir El Balah will be open at least partially to Palestinian vehicles reportedly please the PNA.

Israel's outgoing chief of staff, Amnon Shahak, said that the events which will transpire before May 1999, the date when President Arafat intends to declare the establishment of a Palestinian state, will have a decisive effect upon the way things turn out. Shahak said that Israel has an interest in completing negotiations with the Palestinian government. He expressed his rejection to any attempt by the army to take a position on the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, saying that the political echelon should be the only side that is responsible for taking such a position.

Heading the Palestinian convoy was Abdul Aziz Shahin, minister of supplies in the Palestinian government. Shahin was ordered to stop at any army roadblock and an Israeli military jeep blocked his way for some 90 minutes. He later was told to cross without any of the other vehicles that queued behind him. Shahin rejected and said he would not allow Israel to differentiate between normal Palestinians and others who bear Israeli-issued VIP cards for ministers and senior PNA officials. When Shahin's demand was rejected, scores of Palestinian troops arrived in the scene and flanked a siege surrounding the Jewish settlement. They took firing positions behind sand barriers while Israel brought in tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The council of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, meanwhile, decided to picket Netanyahu's residence as of Friday afternoon until late Saturday night with a demand on the prime minister to remain strong and to refuse any implementation of the second phase redeployment in the West Bank. Right wing activists warned that "the wanton acts which we saw in Gaza are a prime example of what will happen in Judea and Samaria [biblical name of the West Bank] should the second phase be undertaken."

Writing in Yediot Ahronot on Friday, Shaked said the siege which Palestinian policemen imposed on the settlements in Gush Qatif represents an escalated approach on their part, and symbolizes the first shot fired in a campaign meant to culminate in May 1999, when President Arafat plans to declare the establishment of a Palestinian state. "The meaning of the events was more serious than other developments which have transpired in the Gaza Strip this year, due both to the active role taken by the Palestinian police in them, and to the Israeli interpretation about how the siege was a provocation planned and staged by the Palestinian Authority," he wrote. He concluded that due to the background of Palestinian frustration and disappointment concerning the impasse in the political process, any small incident could trigger similar events in the future.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian foreign minister: Israeli policy is illogical   (7/2/1998)
  Security map strips Netanyahu naked   (7/1/1998)
  Israeli redeployment to take place, the Mordechai factor   (6/17/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search