US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV5285

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 005285 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWBG, KPAL, PREL, ECON, EAID, PINS, IS, GAZA DISENGAGEMENT, SItrep 
SUBJECT: DISENGAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT, AUGUST 26, 2005 
 
REF: TEL AVIV 5258 
 
This is a joint message from Embassy Tel Aviv and Consulate 
General Jerusalem. 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
This message conveys information as of 1700 hours local time. 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  The Israeli cabinet is expected to 
approve on August 28 an agreement with Egypt allowing Egypt 
to post 750 Border Guards on the Egypt-Gaza border. 
Meanwhile, Israeli pundits and the weekend press ponder the 
impact of disengagement.  The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot 
reported August 26 that 54 percent of Israelis would be in 
favor of further pullouts from Jewish settlements in the West 
Bank, as opposed to 42 percent who say they oppose further 
withdrawals.  The residents of the West Bank settlements of 
Mevo Dotan and Hermesh, which are situated near the evacuated 
settlements of Gannim, Kaddim, Sa Nur and Homesh, asked 
August 25 to be evacuated in exchange for compensation as 
part of the disengagement plan.  A spokesman for the Israeli 
Interior Ministry reported that even after factoring in 
Israel's evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the 
West Bank this week, the overall number of Israelis now 
living in the West Bank has grown by about 12,800 so far this 
year to a total of 246,000.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) DISENGAGEMENT STATUS: 
 
Gaza Strip: 
 
-- According to Israeli press, the evacuation of the 48 
graves in the Neve Dekalim cemetery will begin on August 28, 
and is expected to take five days.  The Director of the Human 
Resources Branch of the IDF said the coffins will be draped 
with the Israeli flag and will be driven in ambulances to the 
cemeteries of the families' request, either the Mount of 
Olives in Jerusalem or the cemetery in Nitzan.  The families 
will return to the cemetery August 26 for a final visit 
before the transfer begins on Sunday. 
 
-- According to Palestinian press, the IDF removed a military 
post yesterday west of Netzarim. 
 
West Bank: 
 
-- A spokesman for the Israeli Interior Ministry, Gilad 
Heiman, in a report picked up by Ha'aretz, said that even 
after factoring in Israel's evacuation of 21 settlements in 
Gaza and four in the West Bank this week, the overall number 
now living in the West Bank has grown by about 12,800 so far 
this year to a total of 246,000. 
 
-- Israeli press reported August 25 that the residents of the 
settlements of Mevo Dotan and Hermesh asked to be evacuated 
in exchange for compensation as part of the disengagement 
plan.  Mevo Dotan and Hermesh are home to 50 families and 30 
families, respectively, and both settlements reportedly do 
not have the same sense of security since the evacuations of 
neighboring settlements Gannim, Kaddim, Sa Nur and Homesh in 
the northern West Bank.  (Note:  The IDF is also evacuating a 
military base next to Mevo Dotan.  End note.)  The press 
reports indicate that the residents of the two settlements 
are unhappy with the checkpoints and roadblocks the IDF is 
erecting to protect the settlers against terrorist attacks. 
The GOI has denied their request for evacuation, and 
reportedly wants to evacuate the settlements as part of a 
political deal with the Palestinian Authority rather than as 
a unilateral move. 
 
3.  (SBU) SECURITY SITUATION 
 
Gaza Strip: 
 
-- Israeli and Palestinian security officials met at Erez on 
August 25 to discuss the handover of settlement areas to the 
PA.  The officials agreed to define a buffer zone area in 
northern Gaza.  Another meeting will be held on August 29. 
 
-- Mortars: A Palestinian mortar round landed in the western 
Negev on August 26, according to media accounts.  No injuries 
or property damage were reported.  A mortar shell fired at an 
IDF base early August 26 in the northern Gaza Strip landed in 
an open field.  There were no casualties and no damage.  Late 
on August 25 (2315) a mortar shell landed near an IDF outpost 
at Rafiah Yam, according to IDF reports. 
 
-- The Al-Nasir Salah-al-Din Brigades, the military wing of 
the Popular Resistance Committees, on 25 August carried on 
its website a military communiqu claiming responsibility for 
firing a Nasir-3 rocket that day on the Israeli town of 
Sederot.  The statement said that the operation was an 
initial response to the "Zionist grudge and the heinous 
massacres, the latest of which was the assassination of five 
citizens from the city of Tulkarm, including commanders and 
mujahidin from our brothers at the Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds 
brigades." 
-- PA police reported to UN sources that Hamas' Qassam 
Brigades held a "show of strength" demonstration between 
Jabalya and Beit Hanoun, August 26. 
 
West Bank: 
 
-- Shooting:  The IDF reported a shooting incident at an IDF 
outpost near Kadim at 2250 on August 25. 
 
-- Stabbing:  A Palestinian stabbed a border policeman in 
Hebron, wounding him lightly. 
 
-- Funerals of the five Palestinians killed in Tulkarm August 
24 took place without incident.  The Popular Resistance 
Committees and Islamic Jihad claimed the responsibility for 
August 25 rockets attacks (reftel) as retaliation. 
 
4. (U) PALESTINIAN REACTIONS 
 
-- The Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO's 
legislative body, August 25 emphasized that Israel's 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some parts of the West 
Bank must be completed through rebuilding the port and the 
crossing points and enabling the Palestinian people to move 
and travel freely.  In a statement marking the Israeli 
withdrawal that was disseminated by the official news agency 
of the Palestinian Authority, the PNC stressed the necessity 
to link the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and enable the 
Palestinian people to control their airspace, territorial 
waters, the crossing points, and borders.  The statement 
noted that the continuing Israeli control of these areas does 
not change the legal status of the Gaza Strip and does not 
mean that the Israeli government has fulfilled its 
obligations and implemented international resolutions. 
 
-- Hamas held a rally in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip to 
celebrate Israeli disengagement. 
 
5. (U) GOI POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS 
 
-- The Israeli cabinet is expected to meet on Sunday, August 
28 and to endorse an agreement that will enable the 
deployment of an Egyptian border guard force along the 
Philadelphi corridor.  The agreement, which is likely to come 
to the Knesset for approval on August 31, will make it 
possible for the IDF to withdraw from the road situated on 
the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. 
 
-- The Labor Party is likely to quit the government by 
November now that the disengagement plan has been 
implemented, according to Labor Party Secretary-General and 
MK Eitan Cabel, speaking to Israel Radio. 
 
-- The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot reported August 26 that 
54 percent of Israelis would be in favor of further pullouts 
from Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as opposed to 42 
percent who say they oppose further withdrawals. 
 
-- An Israeli court in the Negev ordered August 25 the 
release of some 180 disengagement opponents who were arrested 
at Kfar Darom.  MK Uri Ariel from the National Union party 
reacted: "I am happy that finally there is some sanity.  The 
arrest of minors was unnecessary." 
 
6.  (U) CROSSINGS 
 
Rafah: Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz on August 25 proposed 
operating the Rafah terminal as a one-way border crossing 
from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, after Israel completes its 
withdrawal from the Strip and the Philadelphi route. 
According to the proposal Mofaz presented to Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon on August 25, Palestinians would be able to 
leave the Gaza Strip for Sinai without Israel's presence or 
intervention.  People and goods entering the Strip would pass 
via a new terminal near Kerem Shalom, under the supervision 
of the Israeli customs authority.  The Defense Ministry could 
build the new terminal within six weeks, Mofaz said, noting 
that the head of the tax authority, Eytan Rub, approved the 
proposal. 
 
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