The Israeli army plans to have an immense ditch dug to stop Palestinians smuggling weapons and cigarettes from Egypt into the Gaza Strip using tunnels in the border town of Rafah.
The defence ministry invited companies on Thursday to bid for the contract. The ditch will be between 15 and 25 metres deep and stretch for about 3,2km.
The Israeli army has demolished thousands of houses and dozens of Palestinians have died in Rafah in raids the army says are aimed at uncovering the tunnels.
But many Palestinians claim the tunnels, which do exist, are a pretext for a policy of demolishing houses in Rafah to increase Israeli security along the border area.
The project is part of a series of measures that will accompany Israel’s proposed evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements. Israel wants to jettison the settlements but maintain control of the border to ensure that no arms can enter from Egypt.
The plan emerged as British Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled a fresh initiative aimed at resolving the conflict. In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle published on Friday, he said Britain had taken a lead at the G8 summit this week in trying to find a way of reforming the Palestinian security services and building on the proposed Gaza pullout.
He is to put it on the table at the end of the month at a meeting of the Quartet: the UN, the US, the EU and Russia.
The Israeli army has used a series of tactics to combat tunnel-building but claims that none has been very effective.
In recent months the idea of a water-filled moat had been proposed but had been rejected. Seawater could further contaminate the Gaza water table and freshwater would be too expensive.
An Israeli military source said the ditch would stop tunnels because it would go as deep as the water table, leaving little room for a tunneller.
”If the plan works this will mean that we don’t have to go into Rafah looking for tunnels.
”But first we have to study the proposals we get on economic, engineering and military grounds,” the source said.
In his interview, Blair attempted to counter the idea that the peace process had been shelved.
He described Sharon’s pullout plan as ”a bold thing for him to do”.
He disclosed that Arab leaders, in spite of public coolness towards the pullout plan, ”privately recognise that if there really is a proper movement out of Gaza, with settlements gone, then this does provide an opportunity”.
British diplomats in the Middle East have been sounding out Arab governments. – Guardian Unlimited Â