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Chief of Staff: Border Corridor to be Widened

(Ha'aretz) - IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon told the Cabinet Sunday the Philadelphia route would be widened, following a High Court of Justice ruling Sunday that permits the army to demolish Palestinian homes without granting residents a right of appeal if this is dictated by "immediate operational necessity" or the need to protect soldiers' lives. The goal would be to widen the road in order to reduce attacks on the soldiers who patrol it to prevent arms smuggling from Egypt. Widening the road would also reduce the threat to the IDF outposts there, army sources said, as it would make it harder for Palestinians to tunnel under these outposts and plant bombs there - something that they have attempted several times already. Finally, widening the road would make it harder for the Palestinians to dig arms smuggling tunnels under it. If the nearest Palestinian houses were 500 meters from the border with Egypt, the army believes that the Palestinians would have difficulty ventilating the tunnels. And since the international border cannot be moved, the only way to achieve this distance is to destroy the nearest ranks of Palestinian houses in Rafah. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Cabinet that the IDF plans to widen the Philadelphia route significantly, thereby "creating a different reality in the Philadelphia-Rafah region....The Palestinians are trying to obtain weapons that would 'destroy the balance.' If we don't fight against the weapons that are smuggled and manufactured there, we will find them here, aimed at the citizens of Israel." Military sources said that as part of the effort to widen the Philadelphia route, the IDF is also planning to dig a wide, deep canal that will run the length of the road, from the Mediterranean Sea to Kerem Shalom. The canal would help both to protect the soldiers on the road from attack and to make it harder for the Palestinians to construct arms smuggling tunnels.
2004-05-17 00:00:00
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