ARABS-ISRAEL - June 20 - Gaza Trench Plan.

PM Sharon says no final decision has been made on digging a trench on the Gaza-Egypt border although bids for the proposed project are invited, which Palestinians condemn as a fresh attempt to pen them in. (The idea of digging a moat was floated last month by the Israeli military as a way to reduce weapons smuggling into southern Gaza through tunnels from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Sharon, who has pledged to pull troops and settlers out of Gaza by end-2005, told his cabinet no ground would be broken along the tinderbox "Philadelphi corridor", also referred to as "Philadelphi Road" or "Pink Area", until Israel consulted with Egypt. The several hundred-meter-wide Philadelphi corridor runs along the Egyptian border and separates the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah from the Egyptian part of town. From 1948 to 1967, Egypt ran the Gaza Strip as an occupied military territory). Sharon later told Jewish leaders the government had asked for financial assistance from a Jewish fundraising organisation to help settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank rebuild their homes in Galilee and the Negev desert. Senior Israeli officials say the government would not encourage settlers to move to West Bank colonies, but they would have the right to choose where they want to live after they are evacuated from settlements by end-2005. The Defence Ministry, appearing to set ...