Huge explosion rocks Gaza City
Middle East Desk Report

GAZA CITY—Three people were killed and 28 others wounded in an explosion of unknown origin in Gaza City on Monday evening, Palestinian medical sources said. Several of the casualties, who include women and children, were seriously wounded by the blast in the city’s eastern Shujaiya district, they said, updating an earlier toll of one dead. Israel’s army drove Palestinian security commanders through the rubble of demolished Gaza settlements on Monday in a rare show of cooperation before handing them over next week. The tour, the first glimpse Palestinian officials have had inside the razed settlements, was meant to let Palestinian security forces plan an orderly deployment after the Israeli military pulls out, Israeli security sources said.
Israel evacuated all 8,500 Jewish settlers from its 21 settlements in occupied Gaza last month under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for “disengaging” from conflict with the Palestinians. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have met in recent months to loosely coordinate the withdrawal, the first removal of settlements from land the Palestinians want for a state. But this was a rare instance of on-the-ground security cooperation, the result of U.S. pressure on both sides, since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000. U.S.-led mediators hope the pullout will be a catalyst for renewed peacemaking.
Israeli officials say they want to complete the withdrawal by September 15, the same day Sharon addresses the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to deploy thousands of police on the heels of departing Israeli troops to prevent militants and ordinary Palestinians from rushing in and seizing property. But underscoring the problems Abbas faces in imposing order, Palestinian police fired in the air and used teargas to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing protesters rallying in the Gaza town of Khan Younis to demand jobs. Seven policemen and three civilians were injured, officials said. His main challenge will be keeping armed factions in check. Militant groups, some dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, have largely observed a seven-month-old truce with Israel but say they will reassess the situation at the end of the year.
Most Palestinians welcome Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, home to 1.4 million of their brethren. But they remain wary because of Sharon’s insistence that Israel will keep settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, where 245,000 settlers live. Israeli finished demolishing settler homes on Thursday under a deal with the Palestinians, who want to build high-rise buildings in their place. On Monday, Israeli officers drove their Palestinian counterparts in four-wheel-drive vehicles through the rubble of the main Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza, and a second tour was planned for the northern Gaza enclaves. Palestinian officials were also to be given aerial maps of settlement areas denied to them until now for what Israel has called security reasons, the Jerusalem Post reported. News media were barred from covering the visit.
“The joint tour is aimed at enabling the Palestinian Authority to get ready to take over after the IDF forces exit the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The Palestinian delegation included Maj.-Gen. Sulaiman Helles, head of the national security forces in Gaza and the West Bank, and Jamal Kayed, commander of southern Gaza, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said. In what could be a further sign of a thaw between Israel and the Arab world spurred by the Gaza pullout, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak plans to visit later this year, Israeli radio stations reported.