Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed that Jewish settler homes in the Gaza Strip will be destroyed as part of Israel's pullout from the area, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.
Rice, on a visit to Israel and the West Bank, said Israel and the Palestinian Authority also agreed to cooperate to ensure the withdrawal, which she hailed as an historic step towards resolving the Middle East conflict, would proceed peacefully.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reaffirmed there could be no progress along a US-backed peace “road map“ leading to the creation of a Palestinian state unless the Palestinian Authority disarmed and dismantled militant groups.
“Israel and the Palestinian Authority agree that the settler homes in Gaza should be removed,” Rice told a news conference after meeting Sharon. “Therefore the parties will work towards a plan for destruction and cleanup.“
Palestinian officials have said they prefer the red-roofed homes, built on occupied land in 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza , be demolished so that high-rise housing can be constructed in the crowded coastal strip, home to 1.3 million Palestinians.
“It was their choice. If they wanted them, they could have had them,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Israeli media reports said rubble from the settlements, whose evacuation is due to begin in mid-August, could be used to build a seaport for Gaza .
Rice said US economic envoy James Wolfensohn would assist Israel and the Palestinian Authority in formulating a demolition and cleanup plan.
“The Palestinian Authority is reviewing a masterplan so that the future land use and housing in former settlement areas are economically suitable for the Palestinian people in the Gaza (Strip). The international community will help,” Rice said.
During the two-day visit, which included talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, Rice called on both sides to agree on specifics about how to carry out the withdrawal, saying time was running out.
Abbas, citing his fears of civil war, has rejected Israel's calls to confront militant groups that have spearheaded a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
The Palestinian leader has said he prefers to co-opt the gunmen into the Palestinian security services and the groups to which they belong into the political mainstream.
Sharon is due to hold a summit with Abbas on Tuesday, their first meeting since declaring a truce in Egypt on Feb. 8. Abbas is expected to press Sharon to open Gaza 's borders, which Israel controls under interim peace deals, to wider movement of people and goods after the pullout.
Palestinians particularly want to reopen Gaza 's airport, closed after they began an uprising in 2000, and a safe passage for the movement of people and goods between the territory and the West Bank.
“Israel will, consistent with its security needs, evaluate the way it manages the crossings,” Rice said at the news conference.