Nuclear threat posed by Iran worries Israel

By The Associated Press

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Sharon told The Jerusalem Post that "there is no doubt" Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and that it is "doing it by deception and subterfuge."

Global efforts to halt Iran's nuclear advancement, including inspections by the U.N. nuclear-watchdog agency and threats by the United States to seek international sanctions, are not enough, Sharon said.

Israel feels especially threatened because Iran has successfully tested a long-range missile that can reach Israel, Sharon said, adding that even moderates in Iran have called for the destruction of Israel.

Israel, Sharon was quoted as saying, "is taking its own measures to defend itself." He did not elaborate.

In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor before it began operating.

Monday, the launch of Israel's latest spy satellite, Ofek-6, failed. The satellite was meant to monitor, among other things, Iranian nuclear activities. The rocket that thrusts the satellite into outer space failed.

In related developments:

Israeli forces entered the outskirts of the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip today in what the military said was an effort to stop Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel.

Scores of Palestinian gunmen in the militant stronghold fought the column of tanks and armored vehicles as helicopter gunships fired two missiles at gunmen. Five gunmen were wounded, one critically.
 
It was the second day in a row that Israeli forces had gone into the northern Gaza Strip to try to stop rockets being fired by militants toward the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

The separation barrier in the West Bank will move closer to Israel in one area to minimize hardship to Palestinians but will also swing around at least two large Jewish settlement blocs to include them on the "Israeli side," Sharon decided yesterday.

Sharon's decision came during a meeting with defense officials, who presented a revised route for parts of the barrier, in line with an Israeli Supreme Court directive that planners must try harder not to disrupt the lives of Palestinians.

Israel has begun releasing 150 Palestinian prisoners whose terms are nearly over to relieve overcrowding, the military said. Israel is holding about 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in the Megiddo detention facility that was designed before the outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli violence in 2000.