Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV5285
2005-08-26 15:01:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

DISENGAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT, AUGUST 26, 2005

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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
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.

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
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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