by Chris Otton
JERUSALEM, Sept 1 (AFP) - Israel moved to speed up construction of its West Bank separation barrier on Wednesday after a double suicide attack in the southern city of Beersheva which killed 16 people, as well as the bombers.
A senior government official said that work on the southern sector of the barrier would begin from Thursday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman said the project would now be accelerated.
"Now we will expedite and speed up the building of the fence there (in the south of the West Bank)," Sharon's spokesman, Ranaan Gissin, told AFP.
"We will build the fence where it provides the best protection, not where the world decides."
The twin bus bombings in Beersheva on Tuesday were the deadliest attacks in almost a year. They were carried out by two members of the Islamist movement Hamas who came from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Work on the barrier, which is eventually expected to stretch across the territory, has so far been concentrated in the north and central areas of the West Bank.
"If there was a fence in that (southern) area, it would have been much harder to get into Beersheva from Hebron," said Gissin, adding that building of the barrier in the north of the territory had forced militant organisations to move their operations southwards.
The director of the seamline area administration, which is responsible for the border between Israel and the West Bank, said construction of the southern barrier section between the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Levahim, an Israeli town near the south-western tip of the West Bank, would start Thursday.
"Several months ago, the defence minister decided the southern section would be dealt with as intensively as the northern section," Netzach Mashiach told army radio.
"Full operation of the entire section, I believe, will take place from 2005."
Writing in the Haaretz daily, security commentator Zeev Schiff said: "Beersheva was chosen as a target because the way from Hebron to Beersheva is relatively easy, in the absence of a defence barrier in the south of Mount Hebron."
He said the most effective "formula" Israel had was to continue its strategy of "assassinations of persons directly involved in suicide bombings, stepping up the construction of the separation barrier, and setting a 'price' for those who support terror."
Shaul Givoli, director of the Council for Peace & Security, a group of former police and army officials who believe the occupation is damaging Israel, said the existence of the barrier in other parts of the West Bank had proved effective in stopping militant attacks.
"The Beersheva attack shows that the security fence is simply critical," Givoli, a retired police officer, told AFP.
"And if it is well planned, along the 1967 Green Line, it will change the reality on the ground and will effectively protect the urban centres in the region," he added.
Israeli analyst Guy Bechor said it was "essential to hermetically seal off" the occupied Palestinian territories before Sharon's proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip because attacks were likely to increase ahead of the pullout.
The Israeli government has been heavily criticised over the barrier, with the International Court of Justice ruling in July that parts built within the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down.
Sharon has vowed to ignore the ICJ's non-binding verdict and pursue construction although he has agreed to be bound by the judgements of Israel's supreme court which has forced construction to be halted several times.
The Palestinians argue that the route of the barrier, which often cuts deep inside the West Bank, shows its real intent is less to do with security but rather to pre-empt the boundaries of their promised future state.
A source close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has condemned Tuesday's attacks, said Israelis has been looking for excuse to continue construction.
"Israel would continue building the wall with or without yesterday's attacks and continue building settlements and their agressions against the Palestinians," the aide said on condition of anonymity.
"It will just give them more reason to continue the wall. It will make their mission much easier in this regard."