GAZA STRIP CLEARING

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28182, 22 January 1957, Page 9

GAZA STRIP CLEARING

Conditions Set By Israel

N.Z Press Association—CongrioW) f ßec. 11 p.m.) JERUSALEM. Jan. 21 Israeli officials said in Jerusalem last night that the Gaza Strip ’houM be placed under United Nations supervision and the freedom of Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba should be guaranteed by the United Nations. They were commenting on the resolution passed on Saturday by the General Assembly calling on Israel to withdraw completely from Egypt.

The Israeli officials said Israel would agree to a condominium for the Gaza Strip consisting of Israel, a local Arab administration. and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. They made it clear that Israel would oppose the entrv of United Nations Emergency Force units into the Gaza Strin as the solution to the Gaza Strip problem, because this could not prevent a renewal of Egyptian fedayeen (commando) attacks against Israel.

Israel would be ready to replace her military forces in the Gaza Strip with a regular police force.

Israel was not seeking to annex the Gaza Strip, but would resist any attempt at Egvptian control of it—direct or indirect.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman had said earlier: “Morally there cannot be one law for Egypt and another for Israel, one which calls for Israel’s compliance with United Nations resolutions and another which permits Egypt to disregard them. Can the General Assembly really be asking Israel to accept a revival of Egypt’s illegal blockade in the Gulf of Aqaba and unrestricted fedayeen attacks from Gaza?”

On the problem of the control of the Gulf of Aqaba, Israel would be ready to withdraw her forces from Sharem el Sheik, on the gulf, if any of these three conditions were fulfilled:—

U.N.E.F units entered Sharem el Sheik and the Eastern Sinai coastal strip with a clear mandate to prevent a renewal of the Egyptian blockade against Israel, and to stay until satisfactory arrangements were made to ensure the freedom of navigation for Israeli ships. If agreement on freedom of passage for Israeli shipping were reached by the four Gulf of Aqaba coastal nations—lsrael. Egypt. Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. If effective guarantees were given to Israel on freedom for her shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba by the Big Powers, particularly the United States.