Court: Gaza barrier must be re-routed

Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the government today to change a large section of its West Bank barrier, saying the current route violates the basic human rights of the local Palestinian population.

The court said the changes must be made, even at the risk of reducing Israeli security. Israel said it would honour the ruling.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Israeli troops encircled the northern town of Beit Hanoun, tearing up roads in an ongoing offensive aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.

A Palestinian teenager was killed, Palestinian sources said.

The court decision – the first major ruling on the barrier – is expected to affect other sections of the contentious separation barrier.

It signalled the court would reject other parts of the barrier that separate Palestinians from their lands, cut villages off from each other or prevent people from reaching population centres.

“Only a separation route based on the path of law will lead the state to the security so yearned for,” the court said in its ruling.

“The route … injures the local inhabitants in a severe and acute way while violating their rights under humanitarian and international law,” it said.

Israel says the barrier is needed to prevent suicide bombers and other attackers from reaching Israeli towns and cities.

But the complex of fences, concrete walls, trenches and razor wire has severely disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinians by separating them from jobs, schools and farmland.

About a quarter of the 425-mile barrier, which dips deep into the West Bank in some sections, has been completed.

Israel’s Defence Ministry – responsible for overseeing construction of the barrier – said it would reroute the disputed sections of the barrier.

The case focused on a 25-mile stretch of the barrier northwest of Jerusalem, where 35,000 people live in eight villages.

Mohammed Dahla, a lawyer for the petitioners, said the court had ordered changes in about 20 miles of the stretch.