Sharon's buffer zones: dogs, ditches and mines

Buffer zones that Ariel Sharon is planning to create to thwart Palestinian attacks will be guarded by "obstacles" ranging from dogs that can detect explosives, land-mines and electric sensors, to fences and ditches, the Prime Minister's spokesman said yesterday.

The zones, which will vary in width from a few hundred yards to several miles, will be established in "chunks" in parts of the West Bank through which Palestinian suicide bombers pass on their way to attack Israelis, according to the spokesman, Raanan Gissin.

"They have a special mission, which is to prevent infiltration. It has no political connotation. It is only about security," said Mr Gissin, who estimated the cost at "several hundred million dollars".

Mr Sharon announced plans to create the zones during a speech to the nation on Thursday. But he was vague about details, saying only that work on marking them out would begin at once.

This led to suspicions yesterday among diplomats and Middle East analysts that the plan is no different from other measures in the West Bank, and is chiefly an attempt by Mr Sharon to reassure war-rattled Israelis and to shore up his standing in the polls, which has slipped by 16 points since December to 54 per cent.

The plan was condemned by Palestinians, whose towns and villages have for months been sealed off by concrete blocks, trenches, piles of rubble and military checkpoints as part of a sweeping internal blockade of the occupied territories by Israel's armed forces.

Their officials said yesterday that they viewed "buffer zones" as the loss of more lands, the probable destruction of more of their homes and orchards and further restrictions on their movement.

Mr Sharon's announcement has fuelled a long-standing debate among Israelis over whether the solution to the conflict is a fence separating them from the West Bank Palestinians. This has gathered momentum with the recent rise in Israeli deaths – including 12 soldiers in the space of a week.

Israeli security officials tend to favour the idea, citing the example of the Gaza Strip, where 1.1 million Arabs live imprisoned behind an electric fence.

No suicide bombers have escaped from Gaza into Israel. However, the picture inside Israel itself – where there are one million Arabs with Israeli citizenship – and in the West Bank, is far more complicated, because the Palestinian and Israeli populations are entwined in many areas.

The Israeli right wing opposes separation, fearing that a fence would eventually become the de facto border, thwarting their ambition to retain the West Bank. Hardliners raised these objections yesterday.

However, according to Mr Gissin, the zones would only cover certain "designated areas" – for example the eastern edge of Jerusalem and the northern West Bank close to Tulkarm and Qalqilya. They would not include a contiguous fence. Nor is there any suggestion that Mr Sharon is intending to withdraw from the 145 settlements built illegally by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza where more than 200,000 Israelis live in fenced-in enclaves guarded by the army.

The growing presence of the settlers is fuelling the war. They are increasingly becoming a target – a fact underscored yesterday when a Palestinian got into a supermarket in the settlement of Efrat and tried to blow himself up. He was shot dead by an Israeli shopper after his bomb failed to go off.

Last year, Israel established a 30-mile military buffer zone inside the north-western edge of the West Bank. There, measures have failed to stop gunmen and suicide bombers from penetrating the nearby Israeli coastal towns.

"It simply does not work," said a diplomatic source, "Unless you have an uninterrupted fence, like the one that imprisons Gaza, there is no way to stop people getting in." This fact has prompted questions about Mr Sharon's ultimate intentions. The ex-general has supported settlement building throughout his career. He has repeatedly made clear that he believes Israel must keep substantial parts of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.

Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace group, summed up the suspicions of Palestinians, Israeli left-wingers and some foreign diplomats yesterday. The buffer zones were "unilateral annexation", said Adam Keller, a spokesman. "Ariel Sharon has no intention whatsoever of giving up the occupation and the settlements."