JERUSALEM, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, giving a campaign speech ahead of a Feb. 10 election, proposed on Monday linking the Gaza Strip with the occupied West Bank by digging a tunnel through Israeli territory. The idea of connecting the two Palestinian territories has been raised in the past but has foundered along with U.S.-backed peace talks, mired in disputes over violence and Jewish settlements. A 22-day Israeli offensive in Gaza last month boosted the popularity of Barak, running for prime minister as head of the leftist Labour party. But polls show rightist Benjamin Netanyahu in the lead also over centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. In a speech to students in southern Israel, Barak said he would press for a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians if he is chosen as prime minister. When asked how Gaza, a coastal enclave home to 1.5 million Palestinians, separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory, could be made a part of a Palestinian state, Barak replied that the regions could have an underground link. "The preferred way to do it would be to dig a tunnel that would be under Israeli sovereignty, but under totally free and unobstructed use by Palestinians," Barak said. He suggested one of the shortest routes would be some 48 kilometres long (about 30 miles), stretching from the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, to Dura, near the West Bank city of Hebron. Some three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Barak estimated the tunnel project would cost $2 to $3 billion, but did not say who would foot the bill, nor did he say under what conditions it would be built. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Israel has ruled out Palestinian statehood with the territory under Hamas. During the Gaza offensive, Israel has bombed tunnels used to smuggle weapons and goods from Egypt into Gaza, and Israeli officials have expressed concern that any links between Gaza and the West Bank could be used for the same purpose. (Reporting by Ori Lewis; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Adam Entous; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Palestinians carry the body of Ayman Abu Jazar, a militant of the Popular Resistance Committees who was killed in an Israeli air strike, during his funeral in Rafah in the southern ...
