Palestinians agree to Israeli monitoring of goods entering Gaza

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Palestinians agree to Israeli monitoring of goods entering Gaza
Associated Press
Arthur Max
September 1, 2005

The Palestinians agreed Thursday to allow Israeli inspectors to monitor goods entering the Gaza Strip to safeguard against arms smuggling, yielding a key point in the final phase of Israel's Gaza pullout.

Egypt will begin deploying troops on the Gaza border by Sunday, Israeli defence officials said, marking another milestone in ending the 38-year occupation, even though more work remains to be done on how the border will be supervised.

Concerned that Gaza could be a staging ground for terrorism and rocket attacks, Israel has insisted on monitoring people and goods entering the sensitive coastal strip to ensure against the smuggling of arms and explosives.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa said the Palestinian Authority was ready to consider continued Israeli inspection of cargo at a new border terminal to be built at the junction of Gaza, Israel and Egypt. But Israel cannot have control over people, who would continue entering and leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing, he said.

The Rafah crossing "should work for individuals, for people in both directions, and must work for goods in at least one direction, out of Gaza. We would consider goods to enter in the way Israel has proposed, in the trilateral crossing," al-Kidwa said in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

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