The Israeli government said on Monday it expects an upsurge in militant attacks ahead of its Gaza withdrawal, as the United States insisted the pull-out should be consistent with the international road map for peace.
”Hamas will want to portray the Gaza withdrawal as escapism on our part, in the same way they believe we were forced out of Lebanon by Hezbollah,” said a senior Israeli government official.
He was referring to Israel’s May 2000 pull-out from south Lebanon following a campaign of sustained attacks by the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah.
Against the anticipated upsurge in attacks by the Palestinian Islamic radical movement Hamas, ”we are determined to continue our strikes against terrorists”, added the government official on condition of anonymity.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Sunday on that the army will not hesitate to fire back at militants, ”no matter where”, as it prepares for the likely scenario of a Gaza withdrawal under Palestinian fire.
”The right way is first to warn those who provide shelter to the terrorists and, if that does not help, to attack the sources of the fire, no matter where,” he was quoted as saying during the weekly Cabinet meeting.
On the ground, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire on Monday near a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
Hamas, meanwhile, delivered on its promise to avenge the death of its fighter Khaled Abu Salmieh in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City late on Sunday.
The group claimed responsibility for launching a makeshift rocket at the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Monday.
Military sources said the Qassam rocket — named after the Islamist group’s military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades — did not cause any casualties.
The army has been battling with rocket attacks for months, including during a five-week offensive in the northern Gaza Strip that ended in early August, and a four-day raid in the same area earlier this month.
But every attempt to stop the rocket attacks has failed to date.
The US consul in Jerusalem, David Pearce, stressed that Sharon’s disengagement plan, which involves the evacuation of Gaza’s 8 000-strong Jewish population and the dismantling of four more settlements on the northern West Bank next year, should be carried out in line with the road map.
”We have always said that the disengagement should be consistent with the road map and not the end of the process,” Pearce told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds in an interview published on Monday.
The internationally drafted road map calls for an end to the violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
The peace blueprint was launched with great fanfare by US President George Bush in June 2003, but its implementation has stalled amid persistent unrest.
Pearce, however, praised Sharon’s planned withdrawals, saying it is ”an indication of progress towards achieving Palestinian sovereignty over a territory in formerly occupied land and toward eventually creating a Palestinian state”.
The hawkish Israeli premier has made clear that the Gaza pull-out will help consolidate the Jewish presence on the West Bank, which is home to as many as 240 000 settlers.
In other unrest on Monday, two Palestinian men accused of collaborating with Israeli forces were gunned down by militants in broad daylight in the northern West Bank.
Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Bethlehem arrested an 18-year-old Palestinian woman whose brother had carried out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in late 2003.
Seven wanted militants were nabbed in Qalqiliya, farther north. — Sapa-AFP