Jewish sightseeing at Gaza border

2003-08-29 Gaza Border—Profile

Tension and hope on
the Israel-Gaza frontier

San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, August 29, 2003

By Donald H. Harrison

KUF-2 MILITARY POST—Along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, there are installations for war and installations for peace.

The northern portion of the Gaza Strip juts southeast from the Mediterranean Sea, then turns southwest before describing a bulge into Israel en route to the border with Egypt.

Israelis refer to the place where the northern Gaza border makes its turn as the "elbow" of the Gaza Strip. On its side of the border, close to the elbow, Israel recently built a hill with landfill and then put a small fort atop it for observation purposes.

The military installation, located close to Kibbutz Erez, Kibbutz Nir Am and the city of Sderot, is known by the Hebrew letter-number combination Kuf-2.

Lt. Col. Eshkol Shukron, the second-ranking officer in this sector, conducted Sha'ar Hanegev Mayor Alon Schuster through the fortification during the recent hudna, or ceasefire, that had been declared by such Palestinian terrorist groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade. I was permitted to accompany the mayor.

After driving up a hill and parking our car, we were admitted to the fortification, where we made our way up a series of cement trenches to observation points manned by armed soldiers.

Looking to our right, we could see the avocado grove of Kibbutz Erez, located perhaps 200 meters from the electronic fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip. The grove is controversial because it has the possibility of providing "cover" for any terrorist who manages to slip over, under or through the fence and who then can run undetected to the densely planted
trees.

Even though it has sophisticated electronic equipment and cameras that are able to peer through night and fog, Israel's Defense Force would like the grove uprooted for security purposes. Cash-starved kibbutzniks are opposed to eliminating a source of income, and so the grove remains— a focus of the potential warfare between Palestinian attackers and Israeli defenders.
Beyond the grove, Israeli tanks are kept at the ready to intercept any would-be terrorists who try to cross from Gaza into the Sha'ar Hanegev region of Israel.

Shukron, who grew up in Kiryat Shemona on Israel's border with Lebanon, said sentries at the fortification "have two missions: to look to the far distance to see if there is something unusual, and to look close to defend this place."

As Pvt. Kulberg kept vigil at his post, Shukron said that he and other soldiers typically stand guard for four hours, with a 10-minute relief period each hour.

Kulberg said that through his binoculars he constantly watches across the border for "people who try to disguise themselves. For example, if you see four shepherds with 20 sheep, that is not normal, because for that size flock you need only one man."

The Palestinians on the Gaza side are constantly gathering intelligence on Israeli tactics and procedures, the Israelis know. "They look for information about our tanks, our shifts and other things that we do. Or they try to throw a stone at our tanks to see what we will do and when we will do it. I look across at the trees to see a small head, and he is looking at me. I look inside windows, inside shadows. There is a lot to look for."

Palestinians try to gather intelligence or plant bombs while attempting to "act like they are fixing things, or collecting wood," said Avi Noam Solomon, who served as a guide and interpreter. "But maybe they are putting a surprise there for us, a bomb or something like that. It could be when we don¹t have the hudna and have to go back there, the territories will be very dangerous and there will be a lot of bombs."

Solomon said sometimes Palestinian children will come through the border fence and wave white flags. "We let them come here and we catch them, but as we are coming with our tanks, our defenses, others are watching, and learning, trying to figure what we will do."

Accordingly, the Israelis often change the way they do things. For example, when they drive on the military road alongside the fence, they will do so at varying times and from different directions.

Under standing rules, the sentry will fire at anyone seen aiming a weapon or
binoculars at the Israeli fortification.

"We have rules when we can shoot during the day and during the night," explained Shukron. "A soldier will call his officer to decide what to do when the case is not black or white."

There are communications between the Israeli officers and their counterparts on the Palestinian side, a situation that can help prevent misunderstandings. "I can speak with them and ask what they are doing over there," Shukron said.

While the eyes of the sentries are an important part of the defense system, high-tech cameras that scan the border are another element in Israel's electronic defense system. Readings from the cameras mounted on high towers and from electronic sensors are constantly monitored by technicians at other defense installations along the Gaza border. One such installation is at
Kfar Aza, where in their ready room soldiers have painted a mural they call "The Eyes of Israel."

For the army, the hudna was stressful, Shukron said. The soldiers wanted to protect themselves and the Israeli border, but also were concerned lest they inadvertently give an excuse to the Palestinians to end the hudna
.
"We want peace for the kibbutz, the children and the people who live in the cities, but at the same time we are preparing ourselves for something that might be, and we don¹t know when it will come — maybe now, maybe next week," Shukron said.

The fortification has sleeping areas, air conditioning and other amenities, prompting soldiers to good-naturedly speculate that if peace ever comes, "this is a good place, with a good view; it could be a nice hotel some day."

* * *
What peace could mean to the Sha'ar Hanegev regions and to the Gaza Strip is very much on the minds of Israelis and Palestinians who work at the Karni border crossing.

Before the intifada began in 2000, as many as 800 trucks a day crossed the Israel-Gaza Strip border, carrying many varieties of produce and manufactured goods between the two regions. The number of trucks drops precipitously during flare-ups between the two countries, then climbs up again. On the day Sha'ar Hanegev's treasurer, Shimon Keren Tzvi, brought me on a visit, it was comparatively quiet: about 500 trucks were expected to cross in one direction or the other.

Goods from the Arab world — even from countries like Saudi Arabia that do not recognize Israel — often pass through Israeli security as they are moved from Jordan to Palestinian-controlled portions of the West Bank, then to Israel, and next to Gaza through the checkpoint at Karni. The flow sometimes goes in the other direction, with goods trucked from Egypt to Gaza, then through Israel to the West Bank and beyond.

Israeli trucks bring the cargo containers into bays where they are detached from the trucks. After the containers are inspected by the Israelis, the large doors of the bay snap shut on the Israeli side, and Israeli workers telephone their counterparts on the Gaza side to say that they may now open the bay from their side. Palestinian trucks then are driven into the bay, where they hook up with the containers under watchful electronic surveillance. An Israeli guide likened the process to the double-door system of a lion's cage.

As more goods flow to Gaza from Israel than vice versa, there soon develops a surplus of cargo containers on the Palestinian side. Every so often, including on the recent day I visited, a cavalcade of empty Palestinian trucks are allowed through a security gate, and, after inspections, they are permitted to detach the cargo containers for use by Israeli truckers. The transfer operation is conducted under the watchful eyes of the Israeli military.

Even in times of tension, the crossing is a beehive of peaceful commerce. Because space is limited in Gaza, there is a yard on the Israeli side where Gaza-bound goods can be stored until needed.

Neighboring kibbutzim have plans to build restaurants and shops at the crossing where truckers— and someday tourists— could spend some time while waiting for the transfer of goods. There also are dreams of factories straddling the border that would provide Israeli jobs for Palestinians without requiring the Palestinians to cross the border.

Without a real peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, such plans are on hold.