The Gaza security strip

Israel withdrew from Gaza as a result of a strategic decision by PM Sharon,
and the move was supported by the majority of Israelis. You might have thought
that the Palestinians would show some kind of gratitude for this unilateral
transfer of territory to them, but you would be wrong. During the rush to
disengage it was suggested to PM Sharon that the northernmost settlements,
Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit, bordering on Israel, should be retained, since
rockets were already raining down on Sderot in the Negev and it was feared
that similarly and with longer range rockets, these could be a great danger to
the city of Ashkleon and its major industrial zone, including a large power
plant only 10 km from the northern Gaza border, within clear sight.
But, a full withdrawal was decreed, ignoring the security considerations.
However, Israel gave plenty of warning that it would consider the firing of
long range rockets on the Ashkelon industrial zone as a severe development,
requiring serious military response. Now that has happened, four rockets have
been fired into the zone, one hit a military base, and five soldiers were
injured. In response Israel has decided to declare a strip of the northern
Gaza border zone a "no-go" area. The local population is being warned not
to go into this area, since it will be treated as a free-fire zone, and it
will be assumed that anyone in this unpopulated area is there to fire rockets.
This is within Israel's right to defend itself, its citizens and its
infrastructure from military attacks. One might ask whether or not it might
have been smarter to have kept this same region with Israeli settlements on
it, but its that's too late for that now.
The defended strip will be 2.5 km deep and 5 km wide. The protection of
this strip depends on the IDF having excellent means to detect individual
terrorists crawling about there both during day and at night. It might become
necessary to send in ground forces to prevent such attacks, although this has
been ruled out so far. The IDF has announced that they will reinforce the
Camp south of Ashkelon and remove the training facility from there.
Note that so far no measures have managed to stop rockets and mortars being
fired on Sderot, to the west, and the IDF has fired artillery uselessly into
fields where rockets have been fired from. All they have done is make large
holes where terrorists can hide. The IAF has used planes to destroy the roads
in the area, but that doesn't help much since two terrorists can easily lug a
rocket launcher over a few km of ground.
Of course, the opponents of disengagement warned that precisely this scenario
would take place once Israeli forces were no longer in the area. This is a
replaying of the situation that occurred on the Lebanese border, although over
a smaller region in Gaza. It was said that after disengagement, if forces
from the PA attack Israel, then the IDF will counter-attack as if this is
enemy territory. We wait to see how seriously their word can be taken. No
doubt, given the lack of action by Pres. Abbas and the PA, this situation will
escalate before it can be resolved.
Meanwhile,the Xmas season in Bethlehem got off to a bad start on Tues when a
group of 15 Fatah al Aksa Martyr's Brigades gunmen took over City Hall for a
few hours, demanding jobs from the PA. After Pres. Abbas agreed to give them
jobs they withdrew. The IDF said it would take no military actions in the
area, and the terrorist groups also agreed to a temporary Xmas truce. Today
Bethlehem has ca. 30,000 visitors,the highest number for ca. 5 years. Israel
has laid on free buses from Jerusalem to Bethlehem for Xmas and has relaxed
the roadblocks. Were the Christians ever so nice to us?