E-Paper
PA plans to raze homes of Gaza settlers
The Palestinian Authority plans to replace Jewish settlers' houses in Gaza with high-rise apartments to ease crowding.
The Palestinian Authority plans to demolish Jewish settler houses in Gaza and replace them with high-rise apartment blocks to ease crowding if Israel leaves the homes intact, a minister said on Thursday.
Israel is still debating whether to destroy the houses when it evacuates 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip in three months' time under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.
"If Israel does not destroy settlers' homes, we will destroy them," Housing and Public Works Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the agency. He said most Palestinian cabinet members favoured demolition.
Shtayyeh said the main reason was to make efficient use of scarce land in Gaza, one of the most densely populated territories on earth.
The suburban-style settler houses with red roofs, white walls and neat gardens contrast with the close-packed cinderblock buildings that are home to most of the 1.3 million Palestinians on the other side of the strip's barbed wire.
Palestinian officials would prefer that Israel destroys the homes and removes the rubble when it quits Gaza, helping to prevent looting after the Israelis leave and avoiding tough decisions about who might be given the homes.
But Israel's army is against demolishing the homes, warning that it could take months and would put soldiers in danger.
Washington has also urged Israel not to destroy the homes, as it did in a 1982 pullout from settlements in the Sinai peninsula as part of a peace deal with Egypt.
Shtayyeh said the settlement land could be used to build high-rise buildings to ease crowding. Israeli army demolitions have also left thousands homeless during raids Israel says target Palestinian militants.
Shtayyeh put the estimated demolition cost at $25 million, and said the rubble could be used to build a seaport in Gaza.
He said the Palestinian Authority would make use of any other remaining infrastructure in the Jewish settlements, including roads and electricity networks.
Palestinians welcome the withdrawal, but fear it is an Israeli ruse to give up hard-to-defend Gaza while sealing its hold on large swathes of the West Bank. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank, both occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future state.
