Israel Plans Air Force 'Umbrella' in Evacuated Gaza
By Dan Williams Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:25 PM ET
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.