Sharon agrees to review path of West Bank barrier

JERUSALEM — Israel will review ‘‘every kilometer’’ of the 310- mile stretch of West Bank barrier not yet built to check whether Palestinian rights and international law are being violated, an Israeli official said yesterday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted Thursday as saying he would be prepared to move the separation barrier closer to Israel, wherever possible, to avoid trapping Palestinians in fenced-in enclaves.

The promise of a review came in response to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this week that most of a 25-mile segment of barrier near Jerusalem must be rerouted because it would cause too much hardship to Palestinians. The barrier — a complex of fences, walls, barbed wire, and trenches — eventually will cut off the entire West Bank from Israel, at a length of 425 miles. Onefourth has been built.

Palestinians contend that the barrier amounts to a land grab and Israel should have built it on its territory, not in the West Bank.

The barrier is a key element of Sharon’s plan of ‘‘unilateral disengagement’’ from the Palestinians, which also includes a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements by September 2005.

In new violence yesterday, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians — all unarmed, according to witnesses — in separate Gaza clashes. A fourth Palestinian, a 15- year-old boy, died of wounds suffered in an Israeli missile strike Thursday.

Also, Palestinian militants fired three homemade rockets toward the border town of Sderot. One fell in town, causing no injuries, and the other two hit open fields.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, three Al Aqsa members from the West Bank city of Nablus were arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem yesterday. One detainee carried a 26-pound explosives belt ready for detonation, security offi- cials said.

Israel says it needs the separation barrier to keep out suicide bombers and other Palestinian attackers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis since 2000.

A senior government official said on condition of anonymity that Sharon told officials the construction of the barrier must advance quickly but problematic areas have to be rerouted to meet the Supreme Court’s demands.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told a team of military officials, engineers, archeologists, and attorneys to review a 310-mile section of the barrier not yet built to see whether Palestinian rights are being violated, said Shiri Eden, an adviser to Mofaz.

The section already built will not be reviewed, she said.

The barrier has severely disrupted Palestinian lives.

Children have to pass through army-operated gates to reach schools, some communities are encircled and farmers are cut off from fields.

A government official said it would take about two weeks to review the area near Jerusalem mentioned in the Supreme Court ruling.

Next week, the world court at The Hague, Netherlands, is to issue an advisory ruling on the route at the request of the Palestinians.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking in Washington, said Israel would reject interference by the international court.