Israeli court orders changes to barrier

By Seattle Times news services

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The landmark ruling by the three-judge panel ruling came ahead of an expected July 9 decision by the International Court of Justice, which was asked by the United Nations to examine the legality of the network of fences and walls.

Israel began construction of the barrier in 2002, saying it is needed to block Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians have said the structure, which dips into the West Bank, is a land grab. About a quarter of the 425-mile barrier has been completed.

The case focused on a 25-mile stretch of the barrier northwest of Jerusalem. This section would disrupt the lives of 45,000 people living in 10 villages, cutting them off from their farmland, schools and jobs, said Mohammed Dahla, a lawyer for the petitioners.

The court had ordered construction in the area to be frozen in March while the case was pending.

"This route has created such hardship for the local population that the state must find an alternative that may give less security but would harm the local population less. These alternative routes do exist," the High Court said.

Its ruling could set a precedent for more than 20 other Palestinian petitions against segments of the barrier.

The case addressed by the High Court today was filed by a string of Palestinian villages.

Elsewhere yesterday, Israeli tanks ringed the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, creating a cordon of armor designed to prevent Palestinian gunmen from firing rockets into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, where a 3-year-old boy and 49-year-old man were killed Monday in a rocket barrage. Despite the defensive steps, five rockets fired in two salvos landed in the Israeli town, causing shock but no serious harm.

These latest attacks have raised concerns that Palestinians have improved their rocket weaponry.

Israeli military officials say the radical Islamic group Hamas has been working to upgrade the range and deadliness of the unguided projectiles manufactured in clandestine metal shops. Palestinian and Israeli sources attributed Monday's deaths to a new breed of rocket, Nasser 3.

The new rocket, which can carry up to eight pounds of explosives and shrapnel, is manufactured by the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of Palestinian factions that has claimed responsibility for destroying three Israeli tanks with powerful roadside bombs.

Israeli army sources say the new weapon is especially dangerous because it can explode in the air, not just on impact, spraying shrapnel over a wider radius.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz described yesterday's open-ended operation by Israeli troops as a "takeover" of the village of 21,000 Palestinians and its surrounding farm fields from which more than 200 homemade rockets have been launched with increasing force and accuracy in the past two years.

The action included sporadic gunfire by Israeli soldiers as Palestinian stone throwers confronted the tanks. Attack helicopters and unmanned drones provided aerial surveillance.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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