Israel Plans Air Force "Umbrella" In Evacuated Gaza

2005-02-24

Dan Williams

www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml? type=topNews&storyID=7730301

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - When Israel pulls soldiers and settlers out of the occupied Gaza Strip this summer, its jets, helicopters and drones will patrol overhead indefinitely to keep an eye on Palestinian militants, the air force chief said. Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy outlined his vision of a military "umbrella" for the coastal territory, with aircraft stopping any cross-border attacks -- a deployment resembling that on Israel's northern frontier since it withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000.

"In Lebanon, around 95 percent of our operations have been from the air," Shkedy told select defense correspondents this week. "I think something like this will happen in the Gaza Strip (but) I really hope that we won't have to hit targets (there)."

He said Israeli experts had developed "command-and-control" units that can check surveillance images relayed from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), identify targets, and order warplanes or helicopter gunships to fire at them -- all within a few seconds.

Foreign analysts believe some Israeli UAVs are armed with remote-guided missiles, making for even quicker response times. "I cannot say we can control all of the ground from the air, but I can say honestly that we developed a lot toward this concept," said Shkedy, one of the main promoters of Israel's controversial aerial assassinations of Islamic faction chiefs.

Under a unilateral plan by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to "disengage" from more than four years of conflict, Israel will quit Gaza while keeping control of its airspace and waters -- an arrangement opposed by the Palestinians.

"The withdrawal from Gaza must be real and complete, meaning no planes should hover in our sky," said Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas, a militant group sworn to the Jewish state's destruction. Armed factions have largely abided by a de facto truce in recent weeks, while Israel has scaled back military missions.

But the militants have threatened to redouble rocket and mortar barrages on Israel unless it also withdraws from all the West Bank, another territory Palestinians seek for a state.

Awaiting Word On Iran

Shkedy's predecessor, Maj.-Gen. Dan Halutz, was named next Israeli chief of staff this week -- signaling the importance of air power in the country's strategic planning.

"Halutz will now have the job of preparing the Israel Defense Force for different scenarios, ranging from renewed Palestinian violence launched from post-disengagement Gaza, to responding to a radical Iranian regime attempting to acquire nuclear weapons," said Israeli analyst Gerald Steinberg.

Iran says its nuclear program is for energy needs only. But Israel and its U.S. ally have urged diplomatic action to stop Tehran achieving any means of making atomic weapons, and hinted that military strikes could be their last-ditch option.

"If the government will ask us to do something, we have to give the answers," Shkedy said. "I must be prepared for anything. "We must try all (non-military) alternatives before we choose something complicated," he said. "But we don't have a lot of time."

Widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, Israel sent jets to bomb the Iraqi reactor at Osiraq in 1981, driving Saddam Hussein's quest for the bomb underground.

The air force received a fleet of advanced U.S.-made F-16i fighter jets last year, extending its reach into the Gulf.

Yet independent experts have voiced doubt that Israel or the United States could mount a similar strike on Iran, noting that its dozens of nuclear facilities are dispersed and fortified.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis