Following murderous attack, debate heats up over future of isolated Netzarim (in Gaza)

Following murderous attack, debate heats up over future of isolated Netzarim
By Ellis Shuman October 26, 2003

Following a Palestinian terrorist's infiltration on Friday into an army base in Netzarim, killing three Israeli soldiers and wounding two others, left-wing politicians called for an immediate withdrawal from the isolated settlement. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says any evacuation of Netzarim "under fire" would only encourage terrorism. The army is also checking why soldiers failed to detect and prevent the attack.

The funeral of Sgt. Adi Osman, 19, from Kfar Sava, who was killed in the attack, was held Friday in her hometown. Staff Sgt. Alon Avrahami, 20, from Or Yehuda, will be buried today in Holon; and Sgt. Sarit Shneor, 19, from Shoham, will be laid to rest in Ramle.

In response to the terrorist infiltration, the IDF demolished overnight a Palestinian police station, to which the lead terrorist apparently escaped, and three unfinished 12-story buildings overlooking Netzarim. Some 2,000 Palestinian residents of the nearby neighborhood were evacuated from their homes so they wouldn't be hurt by the blast. In addition, the army thwarted three terrorist infiltration attempts into Gaza Strip settlements overnight.

Netzarim, a community founded in 1973. is located just south of Gaza City, far from other Israeli settlements, and is considered the most well-guarded settlement in the Gaza Strip. It is home to some 65 families, and is protected by a battalion of Israeli troops, numbering in the hundreds. Community residents can only access their homes from the Karni Crossing in convoys of armored vehicles.

Netzarim is surrounded by fences and electronic detection devices and some 10 guard posts, manned 24 hours a day. Yet none of these security measures were able to detect or prevent the early Friday morning "murder spree," which caught the base's soldiers in their sleep and unarmed. "The fog was not responsible," wrote Amir Rappaport in Maariv.

Left: Evacuate Netzarim. Right: Not "under fire" "The murder in cold blood of three soldiers raises yet another question mark among the many questions surrounding Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip," MK Haim Ramon (Labor) said today, writing in Yediot Aharonot. "The painful and purposeless deaths of three terror victims in Netzarim once again raises the question, to which there is no rational answer: What are we doing there? An absolute majority of Israeli citizens, among them a substantial amount of right-wing voters, supports our withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," Ramon said.

"Instead of paying this high price in blood, we should immediately evacuate Netzarim," said MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz). "There is absolutely no justification to leave a handful of settler families in the most densely populated area of the world, and to send soldiers to protect them is a political and security failure."

Shinui MK Melli Polishuk-Bloch said, "There is no justification for our sons and daughters to be killed defending a handful of fanatics."

Former Labor leader MK Amram Mitzna said that isolated points in the Gaza Strip have "no value." Mitzna said Israel "should have withdrawn from Netzarim yesterday and as that did not happen, it should be left immediately."

Netzarim resident Eliyahu Ozen said in response to the calls for withdrawal, "After every terror attack, we hear cries of weakness... They don't understand that these voices only encourage the terrorists to continue to perpetrate attacks. Netzarim continues to exist, and anyone who thinks that its evacuation will bring peace, doesn't know the reality in which we are living," he said.

Netzarim members also mentioned the fact that the community was established by a left-wing government in 1973.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz are opposed to any discussion of evacuating Netzarim, Haaretz reported today. Sharon said any evacuation of the settlement under fire would have dire consequences and only encourage terrorism, the paper reported.

Justice Minister Yossef (Tommy) Lapid (Shinui) said that the evacuation of Netzarim should only take place within the framework of a peace agreement. "An evacuation due to terror will only provide an excuse for terror attacks elsewhere," Lapid said. Even so, he added, "The time has come for the government to hold a discussion on the future of Netzarim. Is it logical that a battalion of soldiers should guard one settlement where just 60 families live?"

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) told the cabinet Sunday morning that the residents of Netzarim should be evacuated and the settlement turned into an army base.

Meanwhile, National Infrastructure Minister Effi Eitam said that female soldiers shouldn't be stationed at combat bases, such as the one at Netzarim. "Their ability to participate in intensive combat operations is limited due to their training and abilities," he said.

According to a Yediot Aharonot report, more and more IDF officers are saying that the high price of protecting Netzarim isn't worth the cost to the army. The army must weigh the move from an strategic point of view, and... recommend to the political leadership to undertake the brave move of withdrawing from the settlement, one unnamed officer said, quoted in the report.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, however, has gone on record as saying that a withdrawal from Netzarim would only give a "back wind" to terrorists, and that the price of removing the army's battalion would be offset by the military requirements of dealing with the resulting situation.

Army investigating circumstances of Netzarim infiltration IDF OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel said on Friday that the army would launch a full investigation into the attack. An initial investigation did not indicate any "serious defects" in the way Israeli forces responded to the attack, Haaretz reported.

The Israeli media raised a number of questions that the army will have to investigate. These questions included:

1. How did the terrorists manage to infiltrate, undetected, into the most well-protected settlement in the Gaza Strip?

2. Why weren't soldiers at the base on alert due to the security situation and the heavy morning fog?

Many of the media reports concluded that no excuses offered by the army could explain the cold blooded murder of the soldiers in their sleep. The reports said that once again, the army lessons would be learned only after they were written in the blood of additional victims.

The attack on Netzarim reopens an old debate in Israel. Netzarim is isolated, and Mr. Mitzna is correct that it's useless. The only purpose for Netzarim being there is purely political and nationalistic. There are no holy sites in Gaza, nor is it part of biblical Israel. The Jewish population is negligable but there are over a million hostile Palestinians in a strip of land 2.5 miles wide.

OTOH, withdrawing under fire shows weakness and encourages more terrorism. I can fully see where Prime Minister Sharon, Justice Minister Lapid, and Defense Minister Mofaz are coming from and I agree withdrawing now would have very negative consequences.

Eventually, though, a pullout from Gaza in inevitable. Gaza has little value and is a huge problem. The question becomes when and how to do it without encouraging more terrorism, more Qassam rockets, and more attacks. I have no idea how to do that so I continue to support the Prime Minister and mourn the dead.

Actually, you're the one who doesn't know what they are talking about. The Israeli navy can protect the coastline and an IDF presence on the Egyptian border can prevent smuggling. Why do we need a tiny little settlement right next to Gaza City? Can you explain that to me?

Have you visited the area? Served in the IDF? How do you, an American, know so much more than me? You do know I'm Israeli, right?

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