EGYPT: Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak yesterday removed one of the cornerstones of Israel's plan for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, rejecting the idea of Egypt taking any security responsibility for the Strip after an Israeli pull-out, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been contemplating asking the Egyptians to provide "assistance" to the Palestinian Authority's police forces after an Israeli departure, which may take place later this year, and to take over from Israeli troops responsibility for a key border corridor, the "Philadelphi route", which runs between Gaza and Egypt.
But Mr Mubarak claimed yesterday that this Israeli thinking represented "a trap" for Egypt, which could be drawn into fighting first with the Palestinians, and then with Israel.
"It's a trap set for us," he told the French newspaper Le Figaro, "because we would find ourselves in a situation of confrontation with the Palestinians.We could even find ourselves in conflict with the Israelis."
Throughout the current three and a half-year conflict, Palestinian militants have smuggled arms into Gaza from Egypt, via tunnels dug under the border, with no significant PA effort to thwart them. Israeli military incursions into border areas such as the Rafah refugee camp, during which troops have searched for the tunnel exits, have often prompted bloody clashes with numerous fatalities.
Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is to travel to Egypt this week to discuss the possible Gaza pull-out, and changes to the 25-year-old Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, to which Cairo may be amenable, which would enable Egypt to bolster its military deployment on its side of the Gaza border following an Israeli departure.
In southern Gaza yesterday, a Palestinian teenager was reported killed by Israeli troops near the settlement of Morag. There was no Israeli response to the report. Israeli military sources claimed that four young Palestinians killed during heavy fighting in Gaza yesterday were hit by grenades thrown by Palestinian gunmen. Palestinian officials blamed Israeli troops.