Israel Backs Off On Holy Site Ban
Israel will not limit the number of Muslim worshippers at a hotly disputed Jerusalem site during the holy month of Ramadan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Thursday, backing away from a threat to impose strict limits.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya Thursday, after tearing up roads, flattening greenhouses and knocking down dozens of houses in a devastating two-day raid, part of Israel's expanding invasion of northern Gaza.
And a report by the Israeli foreign ministry warns that Israel could face European sanctions like apartheid South Africa, unless it resolves the conflict with the Palestinians, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. The ministry's 10-year forecast said that Israel can expect international isolation, as the European Union grows more influential.
The Israeli government had said that it feared for the structural safety at the holy site.
"The prime minister accepted the clarification of the Islamic Trust and will not limit the number of worshippers," accepting police recommendations, Sharon's office said in a statement.
The shrine is a hilltop in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, sits atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples. Both Israel and the Palestinians claim sovereignty there.
The Israelis had warned that part of the shrine could collapse because of the effects of a recent earthquake, but Muslim officials denied that and said the Israeli move was an attempt to assert political control.
Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, but handed day-to-day administration of the site back to the Islamic Trust, or Wakf, because of its sensitivity.
The holy month of Ramadan begins Friday. As many as 250,000 worshippers have thronged to the site in the past, but Israel said it would limit the number to 50,000 for safety reasons.
The area in question is an underground mosque where Muslims have been excavating. Israeli officials and experts warned that crowds of worshippers on the roof of the area could cause it to collapse.
The walled 36-acre compound is the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and riots there in 2000 escalated into the current round of fighting.
The chief Muslim cleric, or mufti, of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has accused Israel of exaggerating the danger in order to increase its role in running the site.
Muslim officials and Israeli authorities are frequently at odds over the shrine. Israel captured it in the 1967 Mideast war, and retains overall control over security, but Muslims run it.
Sharon discussed the issue Thursday in a closed-door meeting of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee. Senior police officials who toured the shrine earlier Thursday briefed Sharon and the legislators.
At the committee meeting, which took place before his decision was announced, Sharon said, "We don't want to prevent people from going up during the holiday, but even more so we do not want it (the shrine) to collapse. We have done all that we can not to prevent the prayers but we will not let it collapse."
The foray into Beit Lahiya was part of a major Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, now in its third week. Sharon told legislators Thursday that the campaign would continue and even be broadened.
Since the Sept. 29 start of the offensive, triggered by a deadly Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli town, 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire, including dozens of militants and 18 children and teens under the age of 16.
As part of the latest fighting, five armed Palestinians and an elderly civilian were killed in three separate missile strikes, starting Wednesday evening.
Sharon told parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that one objective of the campaign was to ensure calm during Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. However, when asked to clarify he said he was not making an end to Palestinian attacks a prerequisite for the withdrawal.
Sharon also said Jewish settlers in Gaza would be removed from their homes by summer. Israel Radio initially quoted him as saying the removal would begin in May. However, participants in the closed-door meeting said Sharon was not that specific.
Despite the heavy army presence in northern Gaza, Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas and Jewish settlements in Gaza. Israeli military commentators wrote Thursday that while an offensive might appease Israeli public opinion, it would not stop rocket fire.
Palestinians say much of the Israeli destruction in Gaza has been wanton.
For the past two weeks, hundreds of armored vehicles have patrolled a five-mile stretch of northern Gaza, including the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jebaliya refugee camp. At times, tanks remained on the outskirts, at times they moved deep into densely populated areas.
On Thursday morning, armored vehicles pulled back to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya after a two-day operation that left a wide path of destruction. The demolitions focused on outlying farms, the center of town and old Beit Lahiya.
The army said the goal of the raid was to prevent militants from launching rockets, and that trees, farm buildings and other structures were destroyed to deprive them of cover. With tanks moving through narrow alleys, some of the destruction was unintentional, the army said.
Dozens of houses in Beit Lahiya were badly damaged and no longer safe to live in. Armored vehicles tore up roads, destroyed water and sewage pipes and knocked down electricity poles.
Palestinian author Omar Khalil Omar, a Beit Lahiya resident, said two houses belonging to his extended family were damaged, and two cars were crushed. He said his mother's grave, on a family plot near his home, was torn up.
"I don't know what threat my mother's grave could pose to the state of Israel," Omar said. "They (the Israelis) simply want to uproot us from here, whether we are alive or dead. But the grave will stay and we will stay."