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National Security Adviser Eiland: IDF Likely to Reoccupy Parts of Gaza to Protect Disengagement
(Jerusalem Post) Sheera Claire Frenkel - It is "very likely" that Israel will reoccupy Khan Yunis and other Palestinian villages in the Gaza Strip prior to disengagement, National Security Adviser Giora Eiland said Sunday. "In order to make the withdrawal possible we need to take preemptive measures....Among those measures, we may enter Khan Yunis and occupy it to secure the safety of our withdrawal." Khan Yunis is very close to settlements in Gush Katif slated for evacuation. Eiland said he hoped to create a buffer zone that would keep out Palestinian terrorists. Otherwise, he said, Khan Yunis might provide cover for snipers and be used as a launching pad for mortars during the evacuation. "If the Palestinian Authority can prove to us that they can secure Khan Yunis, then there will be no need for us to go in and occupy [it]," Eiland said. He said it was ironic that Israel would be going back into Palestinian areas of Gaza from which it withdrew in 1995. "The Palestinian problem is, in one word, Hamas," he said. "They consider themselves equal to the PA....So now we are in a situation with two political entities and either can undermine the other one when dealing with Israel." "Hamas is now increasing its forces, rebuilding its chain of communication, and biding its time until its next cycle of violence," he added. Eiland said Hamas would only go along with a cease-fire as long as it approved of what the PA was doing. "The moment that Hamas, or some other militia, are not happy with the political process, they will take up violence again," he said. "Israel will continue to be the hostages of the goodwill of Hamas."