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Posted on 06/17/2004 7:20:22 AM PDT by areafiftyone
JERUSALEM, June 17 (Reuters) - Israel set in motion a plan on Thursday to dig a moat along the Gaza-Egypt border, inviting contractor bids for the project meant to prevent arms reaching Palestinian militants through tunnels.
The Defence Ministry published the bid notice 11 days after the cabinet approved in principle a Gaza withdrawal plan, under which Israel would keep a narrow corridor on the Egyptian frontier pending possible security arrangements with Cairo.
Inviting bids by July 12, the ministry said the southern Gaza Strip "canal" would be 15 metres (50 ft) to 25 metres (80 ft) deep and stretch four kilometres (2.5 miles).
The notice, in Israeli newspapers, did not give the width of the canal -- a figure crucial to determining whether any Palestinian homes along the "Philadelphi Corridor" buffer zone adjacent to Rafah refugee camp would need to be demolished.
It was not clear whether the moat would be filled with water, as Israeli military sources had suggested last month, or would be a dry moat.
The ministry invited contractors to tour the project site and said one-year contracts would be issued, renewable for an additional 12 months.
Israel's Defence Ministry and the army declined to elaborate on the project. But Israel radio's military affairs corrrespondent quoted defence sources as saying the moat would be built along the Philadelphi strip.
The multi-million dollar plan was floated last month by the Israeli military as a way to reduce weapons smuggling into southern Gaza after 13 soldiers were killed in three ambushes.
Palestinian officials have said such a project would lead to more houses being bulldozed in the Rafah camp, the scene of a six-day Israeli army operation in May which the U.N. relief agency UNRWA said made 575 people homeless.
The army has said it found and destroyed more than 80 tunnels used by militants in the past three years and commanders have voiced fears the Palestinians could seek to bring in longer-range weapons to fire at Israeli cities.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians envisages the removal by the end of 2005 of all 21 Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza and four of the 120 Israel has built in the West Bank.
In a compromise with right-wing hardliners in his cabinet, Sharon agreed to put off any evacuations until a further ministerial vote in nine months' time.
Choices, choices -- dry moat, wet moat. Isn't evaporation a problem there unless they dig a seawater canal? Then it would be Gaza Island, not the Gaza Strip.
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Not Crocs, they are too slow, PIRHANAS! Lots of 'em!!!!!!
mutated ill tempered sea bass....
I like sea bass, Wouldn't want them eating bad food..........
How about mining it?
What will be funny, are all the tunnels they discover while digging the moat.... Oops! :)
By the way, if sKerry gets elected, do you think he'll go there some day and proclaim: "Mr. Sharon, fill in this moat!"?
A moat...with drains at several spots in the middle...to be occasionally opened...to discourage tunnels underneath!
Sounds like a plan to me!
Wow..thought that said MOAB for a moment.....
Fill it with water. Make a deal with Egypt for the land that would be required if necessary, it would make a great place to build a resort if it was wide enough. Do one of those "neighbor" things with half on your side, half on theirs and you pay for the thing.
Wouldn't want to hurt the environment.........
OH Too funny
I wonder if Tony Soprano family might be involved this sorry Ariel you have kick back on profit to Tony Family about 20 to 50 percent
Actually, I'd wondered for years why they didn't do this to stop the tunnelling.
I don't know if piranha or crocodiles can survive in a saltwater.
So fill it with sharks and stinging jellyfish.
I actually thought more along the lines of a ditch full of wild boars, though.
The moat would only be 2.5 miles long, so apparently most of the tunnels are dug under that small an area. Hmmm, and they aren't dug deeper than 80 ft. max....
All right, dig that moat! And don't fill it with water, leave it dry and mine every square inch of the bottom and sides.
This is getting interesting ...
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