Israel strikes Gaza to enforce buffer zone
(Reuter)
Updated: 2005-12-27 14:27

MILITANTS DEFIANT

The Israeli army has been given the go-ahead to enforce a no-go zone near the Gaza border with Israel and has urged Palestinian police to evacuate positions.

Palestinian officials have rejected the move and ordered their forces to remain.

Gunmen in Gaza have continued rocket fire despite Israel's withdrawal from Gaza after 38 years of occupation, calling it a response to Israeli strikes in violence that has soured hopes the pullout would lead to a quick resumption of peacemaking.

In recent days the crude rockets have struck near Israel's southern coastal city of Ashkelon.

Defiant militants said they would step up the barrages if Israel attempted to curb rocket fire with aerial assaults.

"Any attack on our people on any part of Palestine will be met by a decisive and violent reaction that will not be limited to a time or place," a statement issued by the al-Aqsa brigades, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees said.

Sharon has ruled out any talks on statehood in the West Bank and Gaza until Palestinians disarm militants, a process that is meant to start under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

The stakes are high for Sharon ahead of the March 28 election, for which the ex-general is standing on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians after quitting his rightist Likud to move towards the political centre.

Opinion polls show Sharon would win re-election, but more violence could strengthen his main rightist challenger, Benjamin Netanyahu, who denounced the Gaza pullout as a surrender to Palestinian militants that would only encourage attacks.