US puts forward plan for Gaza

THE US has put forward plans to deploy international observers at the main cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza to prevent repeated security closures of Gaza’s economic lifeline.

Both Israel and the Palestinians support the idea. However, Israel would only consider its implementation after the release of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas-allied militants in June. US officials in Israel had no immediate comment.

The Karni crossing was closed by Israel for long stretches this year following security alerts and attacks by Palestinian militants. Virtually all of Gaza’s imports and exports go through Karni.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the proposal to deploy observers on the Palestinian side of the crossing came from Major General Keith Dayton, the US security co-ordinator in the West Bank and Gaza.

The plan also calls for training Palestinian security, trade and customs officials and building a new terminal at Karni, he said.

The Israeli daily, Haaretz, said 90 international observers would be deployed on the Palestinian side of Karni, backed by 30 assistants, and the terminal would be expanded on both sides of the border.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz welcomed the idea in a meeting with Dayton last week, but said his country would not work on the plan until the Israeli soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, had been released.

Yesterday, four Palestinians were killed near Gaza City. Palestinian security officials said the four were manning roadblocks in the area when they were hit by an Israeli missile fired from the air.

The Israeli military said Israeli soldiers operating in the area killed three Palestinians in a firefight, but did not know of a fourth man killed. Two of the dead were from Hamas and two from the presidential guards linked to Abbas’s Fatah movement, Palestinian security officials said.

In southern Gaza, Hamas gunmen shot a motorist who refused to stop at a roadblock, witnesses said.