Violence flares as Israel says it plans to extend security barrier
The new segment would cut off the Jordan Valley a region on the eastern side of the West Bank where Israel has a number of settlement and connect it to Israel.
Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved a series of security barriers that would run through the West Bank, in most areas relatively close to Israel. The Jordan Valley segment, which would be much further to the east, has not yet been presented to the government for approval, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
His comments provided the most detailed confirmation yet that a Jordan Valley segment is being considered by Israel. The official said that this segment would be the last to be built, if it all, depending on the security
situation.
Israel says it is building the fences, razor wires and trenches to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen. The Palestinians say Israel is grabbing land, unilaterally drawing a border and making it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian State.
"This wall will create a new fact on the ground, which will make it impossible to reach any political solution," said Hassan Abu Libdeh, a spokesman for Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
In the Gaza Strip, Islamic militants broke into an army base at the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip under heavy early-morning fog yesterda and killed three Israeli soldiers two women and a man and wounded two in their sleeping quarters.
A settlement security guard, Eliyahu Zan, said that a call came over his walkie-talkie warning that an attacker was in the settlement. "We heard the sound of the shooting very loudly. It pounded in our ears," he told Israel Radio.
Troops shot and killed one of the Palestinians, who was armed with an assault rifle, the army said. Troops failed to find a second attacker.
The militant Islamic Jihad said one of its members carried out the shooting together with a gunman from Hamas. The caller identified the dead attacker as Samir Fouda, 21, a Hamas militant from Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, and said the other assailant escaped.
Also yesterday, Palestinian doctors said an 11-year-old Palestinian died during surgery after he was injured by gunshots in Gaza. Troops fired machine guns in the area of the boy's home. Elsewhere in Gaza, a 10-year-old boy was shot in the stomach and was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Soldiers also shot and killed a Palestinian who approached the fence of another settlement.
