JERUSALEM - Israel will reroute its West Bank barrier closer to its boundary with the occupied territory under a court order that states Palestinians must not be cut off from their lands, the project's administrator said yesterday.
It was the first confirmation of leaks from security sources that the barrier, which
the World Court and UN General Assembly have branded illegal, would in future run nearer to the "Green Line" frontier.
Senior political sources said the route revisions would be presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon next week for final approval.
Israel bills the barrier as its bulwark against infiltrating suicide bombers. But sections snake well inside the West Bank to encompass large Jewish settlements that Israel vows not to cede.
Palestinians condemn the network of razor-tipped fencing and concrete walls as a precursor to Israel annexing land it took in the 1967 Middle East war. They say this would deny them a viable state promised them by a US-backed "road map" peace plan.
Last month, Israel's High Court ordered a 30km section moved to ease hardship on Palestinians. But it also said Israel could erect a "security" barrier on "disputed" land.
Sharon aims to "disengage" Israel from the Palestinians by evacuating all 8000 settlers from occupied Gaza next year and a few hundred among the 230,000 in the West Bank.
In the meantime he is bent on smashing Palestinian militant groups to prevent them claiming victory in a settler exodus.
Yesterday, missiles killed two Palestinians in their car in Israel's latest air strike on wanted Gaza militants. One was named as Amr Abu Sitta, commander of an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
- REUTERS
Herald Feature: The Middle East
Related information and links
