Israeli DM Submits Plan on Buffer Zone with Palestinians: Radio

Israeli Defense Ministry Wednesday officially submitted to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a plan for building up a buffer zone along the Green Line between Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Public Security Minister Uzi Landau discussed the plan Wednesday in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, the report said.

No decisions were made during the meeting and the discussions on the plan will continue, the radio added.

The plan was drawn up after a Palestinian suicide bomber entered Israel and blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv beach disco last Friday, killing 20 others and wounding more than 120.

Israel hopes that such a buffer zone, eight to 10 kilometers wide east of the Green Line and along its entire length, will play as a closed military buffer zone forbidding any Palestinians from approaching without permission.

During Wednesday's meeting, Landau reportedly expressed his satisfaction that the army will be stationed on the eastern side of the Green Line, or the 1967 border between Israel and the Palestinian territories, while the police will be deployed on the western side.

He also supported the proposal that Israel place obstacles and observation points along the border zone, and even build an electric fence in some places.

According to the Defense Ministry's plan, the construction of such a zone will cost between 1 billion and 1.5 billion shekels (241 million to 361 million U.S. dollars).

Sharon suggested Monday that his government may seriously consider such a Green Line buffer zone plan to prevent Palestinian suicide bombing attacks.

The ongoing violence between Israel and the Palestinians has claimed over 570 lives, most of them Palestinians, since its eruption more than eight months ago.

Earlier Monday, a public opinion poll showed that 60 percent of the Jewish Israelis back a unilateral separation plan to break the cycle of violence.

However, Peres already spoke strongly against the plan, saying that a separation could only be reached by peace deals with the Palestinians.

Otherwise, he added, the violence will continue even Israel sets up fences along the separation line.






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