Israel Takes Steps to Block Attacks With Buffer Zone in Northern Gaza

Frustrated by continuing rocket fire from Palestinian militants, Israel moved Wednesday to carve out a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip, firing a barrage of artillery shells and dropping leaflets that warned Palestinian residents to stay clear.

The escalating confrontation represented the latest setback to peace hopes in the wake of Israel’s landmark withdrawal of troops and Jewish settlers from Gaza over the summer. For many Israelis, the offensive brought back memories of the army’s costly effort to maintain a buffer zone in south Lebanon during the 1980s and 1990s to forestall rocket attacks against Israel’s northern communities.

As darkness fell Wednesday, the boom of Israeli artillery fire echoed across the farming fields and shantytowns of northern Gaza. A short time earlier, homemade rockets fired by Palestinian militants had landed inside Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.

Israeli politicians and military leaders said they hoped to avoid an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza, but emphasized that Palestinian rocket fire -- even that involving homemade projectiles that rarely inflict casualties or cause serious damage -- would not be tolerated.

With the establishment of a “no-go” zone in northern Gaza, “we have taken things a notch higher,” said Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim.

Palestinians condemned what they called a bid to reassert Israeli control over the impoverished coastal territory, home to 1.3 million Palestinians.

“Israel has left Gaza and doesn’t have any right to return,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Gaza City. “They shouldn’t be looking for excuses.”

Since taking office nearly a year ago, Abbas has been struggling to cope with spiraling lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza. In a fresh sign of the continuing unrest, Palestinian police exchanged fire with scores of masked gunmen who overran election offices in central and southern Gaza -- a frequent occurrence in recent weeks -- to demand that candidates the fighters favor be allowed to run in Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.

Abbas’ Fatah movement, which has been beset by infighting, on Wednesday reached a compromise on the slate of candidates for the vote, in which Fatah is expected to face a strong challenge from the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Fatah’s revamped list of 49 candidates -- submitted hours before a legal deadline -- gives the greatest prominence to members of the faction’s “young guard,” many of them in fact middle-aged activists who came of age during the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Heading the slate is jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life sentences in an Israeli prison in connection with the deaths of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk.

“Now Fatah is unified,” said Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Palestinian official considered part of the movement’s reformist wing.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and three other international supporters of the “road map” plan for Mideast peace urged Wednesday that the next Palestinian Cabinet not include members of militant groups that remain committed to violence against Israel.

Abbas expressed hope that the elections would take place “in a spirit of transparency and fairness, so we can achieve real democracy.”

Any outbreak of serious fighting in Gaza could cast a pall over not only the Palestinian vote, but also Israeli general elections set to take place two months later. Highly popular Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is seeking a third term, heading up his newly formed party Kadima, which means “forward.”

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over Gaza showing the boundaries of the no-go zone, roughly following the borders of the northernmost of the Jewish settlements uprooted over the summer. Israeli military officials also met with Palestinian counterparts to warn against any civilians straying into the mainly uninhabited area.

“Anyone who does not take heed of this notice is putting his or her life in immediate danger,” said the Arabic-language leaflets.

Some, borne by the wind, drifted over the boundary line into Israel, with clusters of them spotted near Sharon’s sheep ranch in the Negev desert.