Netanyahu: Katz's idea
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Katz: Close all land crossings
Photo: Hillel Posek
Aboul-Gheit. Worried
Photo: AFP
PM: No plan to fully disengage from Gaza
Netanyahu calms Egypt by disassociating Israel from Minister Katz's plan to close all Gaza crossings
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained Tuesday that a plan to completely disengage Israel from the Gaza Strip was entirely Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's idea and had no bearing on Israel's policy.
On Monday the prime minister asked Katz to form a plan regulating the activity at Gaza's border crossings with Israel, in accordance with a new government policy on the Strip. On Wednesday the National Security Cabinet is scheduled to convene to discuss the new policy.
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He has already established a team, headed by his ministry's secretary general, to construct the plan, which also includes military officials and officials in charge of the Gaza border crossings.
Katz's plan dictates that Israel will close all land crossings to the Strip and that all goods and people will be obliged to pass through the Rafah crossing into Sinai and Egypt.
Israel, in implementing the plan, would be effectively throwing off all responsibility for crossings by land into Gaza, and later by air and sea.
However the state would still maintain the right to perform security checks, in order to make sure no weapons were entering the Strip.
Netanyahu's calming message Tuesday was delivered following an angered response by Egypt to Katz's plan. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said earlier Tuesday that the plan was worrying.
"Minister Katz's proposal on the Gaza crossings represents the personal view of the transportation minister, which he has previously expressed. The Israeli government has made no decisions to this effect," the Prime Minister's Office stated in response.
