Inter Press Service (IPS)
Thu Jun 16, 7:20 PM ET
 


JERUSALEM, Jun 16 (IPS) - It might have been expected that Israel, not wanting to have pictures broadcast of Palestinians triumphantly entering the evacuated homes of settlers in the Gaza Strip, would want to demolish those homes. It might equally have been expected that the Palestinians, wanting to be seen marching into the homes of their retreating occupiers, would want the houses to remain intact.
But the question of what to do with some 1,600 settler homes - inhabited by 7,500 settlers - that are to be evacuated in mid-August as a part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan has become an increasingly vexing one, for both Israel and the Palestinians.
After initially signalling that the homes would be demolished to spare the settlers the sight of Palestinians entering their houses, Sharon recently indicated that the matter was still unresolved. The reason: the military has informed the Israeli leader that it opposes demolishing the homes because this would significantly increase the time it would take to complete the Gaza withdrawal and would expose soldiers to increased risk of attack from Palestinian militants.

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