Israel to impose 'ariel seige' on Gaza

Israeli troops will impose an “aerial siege” on parts of Gaza, shooting from helicopters or gunboats at anyone entering a “no-go zone” near the border, as part of a new campaign against Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns, a senior defence official said today.

However, Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim ruled out a major ground offensive against Gaza. He also acknowledged that the home-made Qassam rockets, which are highly inaccurate and have a range of about six miles, do not pose a strategic threat to Israel.

Boim said Israel was gradually stepping up its response to Palestinian rocket fire, which has intensified since Israel withdrew from Gaza in the summer.

“We are tightening the screw ... by creating these areas, in the hope that they (the Palestinians) will get the message and that this will stop the rocket squads,” Boim told Israel Radio.

“If we must, we will have to tighten the screw further.”

Several rockets have landed in recent days near sensitive infrastructure installations close to the Israeli city of Ashkelon, including a power station and a fuel depot. Yesterday, a rocket fell into an Israeli army base near the Gaza border, slightly wounding five soldiers.

Since the Gaza pullout, militants have been able to move their launching sites closer to the border fence, bringing the Ashkelon area into range. Preferred launching grounds are the ruins of three Jewish settlements in northern Gaza, close to the fence.

The “no-go zone” will be about 1.5 miles deep and run along the northern and eastern edges of Gaza, defence officials said. The Israeli military will present a map of the zone to Palestinian police and drop explanatory leaflets over Gaza to make sure security forces and civilians don’t enter these areas.

Boim said Israeli forces would not enter Gaza, but fire from the air and from the sea at anyone reaching the zone. Israel might hold off for a few more days, in part because of low visibility during what is expected to be a rainy weekend, and in order to give Palestinian security forces a last chance to rein in the militants, defence officials said.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, has ordered the deployment of additional security forces along the border, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that Israeli officials told him they were “furious” with the Palestinians for not halting the rocket fire.

Boim said that as a last resort, Israel should fire artillery into populated areas, after giving residents 12 hours to clear out, but added that this was his personal view, not the government’s position. Other proposals have included shutting off Gaza’s electricity, but Israeli media said the army and the attorney general oppose the idea.

The stand-off on the Israel-Gaza border came in the midst of Palestinian and Israeli election campaigns.

Polls published today indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new centrist party, Kadima, was making further gains, while Amir Peretz’s moderate Labour Party has slipped to its lowest level of support in months.

Kadima would win 40 of 120 seats in parliament, while Labour would get 19 seats, according to a poll in the Maariv daily, which had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points. The hardline Likud Party, which Sharon had left to form Kadima, would win 15 seats under its new leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abbas’ Fatah Party, meanwhile, made a final push to reverse a split and present a single list of candidates for January 25 parliament elections. Earlier this month, Fatah’s disgruntled young guard, led by jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, had broken away and presented its own list of candidates, under the name Future.

Eager to bring the young guard back into the fold, Abbas agreed to award top slots to many of the younger activists who had done well in Fatah primaries. Initially, Abbas had given many of these spots to oldtimers, who will now have to compete in districts, where there re-election is not secured.