Rice believes in smooth Gaza withdrawal

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders convinced her that both sides share a commitment to ensuring Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza takes place smoothly and peacefully.

“Israel and the Palestinian Authority share a commitment to ensure that disengagement happens smoothly without violence,” she said.

Both the Israelis and Palestinians agree that the homes in the Gaza Strip settlements will need to be destroyed when Israel pulls out this summer, and they will need to work together to figure out how that will happen, Ms Rice said.

The two sides also agreed to work to ensure that goods and people are able to flow into and out of Gaza after the pullout, she said.

“The United States cannot make the disengagement work, only the Israelis and Palestinians can make the disengagement work,” she said.

Ms Rice stressed that the pull-out, which will be the first time Israel has withdrawn from land that Palestinians claim for a future state, is a historic step.

Coinciding with Ms Rice’s visit yesterday, Palestinian militants armed with rifles and grenades attacked Israelis near an army post in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one Israel and wounding two others. One of the militants was killed in the attack.

The attack was the second major assault on Israeli targets in Gaza in recent days and defied a four-month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinians.