Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 1 September 2003 — Israel’s defense minister yesterday raised the specter of an Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants already face a deadly air campaign.

Israeli military commentators say a ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip, home to more than one million people under Palestinian control, would cause heavy Israeli and Palestinian casualties.

“We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza,” Shaul Mofaz said. “We will exercise it when we decide it is right to do so, at the appropriate time.”

Israel has killed 13 Palestinians, including 10 militants, in helicopter missiles strikes since a Hamas bomber killed 21 people on an Israeli bus in Jerusalem on Aug. 19.

Mofaz spoke to reporters hours after a Palestinian gunman shot and wounded an Israeli truck driver at the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam in the southern Gaza Strip, the latest violence to batter a US-backed peace road map.

The shooting, claimed by the militant group Hamas, followed an Israeli helicopter missile strike on Saturday that killed Abdullah Akel, leader of its armed wing in central Gaza, and another Hamas member.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana rejected demands by Israel yesterday to sever contacts with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and criticized the path of a controversial West Bank security barrier.

“We will continue contacts with Palestinians and the Palestinian president,” Solana said after talks here with Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

“We respect any decision by a democratic country but one has to respect our position that has not changed.”

Israel has been urging the EU to follow the lead of the United States and cut off all ties with Arafat, whom it accuses of seeking to undermine the peace process and his moderate Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Shalom reiterated that it saw Arafat as part of the problem and not the solution.

“Arafat is doing his utmost to destabilize Abu Mazen (Abbas) but it must be clear that we will not have any contacts with a government that is under the influence of Arafat,” he said.

Solana expressed reservations about the Israeli government’s determination to pursue Hamas activists after a series of airstrikes in Gaza which have killed many people, including a number of civilians.

“We recognize that Israel has a right to defend itself but it must avoid certain acts which can affect constructive relations between the two parties,” he said.

Solana also criticized Israel’s construction of a controversial security barrier across the West Bank which at times cuts deep into Palestinian territory.