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| Israel-Palestine | |
| Israel, Egypt near deal on Gaza border security | |
| 2005-07-06 | |
| JERUSALEM - Israel said on Tuesday it was close to agreeing to deployment of an Egyptian security force along Egyptâs border with Gaza that could pave the way for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory. âWe are in the process of concluding the protocol concerning the deployment of 750 Egyptian border police who would replace civilian police who are there,â Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told a parliamentary committee. The move would accompany Israelâs planned August evacuation of Jewish settlements built in the Gaza Strip. Mofaz said if the new Egyptian forces put a stop to arms-smuggling through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border by the end of the year, this would enable Israel to withdraw troops from the frontier area in addition to the rest of Gaza.
âI believe that ultimately it is in the interests of the Palestinians and the interests of the Egyptians to stop the smuggling of the weapons,â Mofaz said during the committee session. âIt would enable us to leave the Philadelphi corridor because it is also in our interest to leave the Philadelphi corridor,â he added. Senior Israeli officials have been meeting with Egyptian counterparts in Cairo in recent days to put final touches to an agreement to exchange Egyptian civilian police for a crack unit equipped to Mofaz said the agreement would be a document separate from Israelâs 1979 peace treaty with Egypt under which it withdrew from Egyptâs Sinai Peninsula, which was then demilitarised and put under monitoring of a UN observer force. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |