Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Kislev 7, 5763 Israel Time: 14:35 (GMT+2)

By Mazal Mualem, Ha'aretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the IDF on Monday to transfer 1,600 M16 rifles to town in the seam line area, following the deadly terror attack on Kibbutz Metzer late Sunday, in which two children and three adults were killed.

Security officials relayed the decision to the head of the regional councils in the seam line area just inside the Green Line at an emergency meeting held Monday in the Menashe regional council, attended by defense minister advisor Amikam Savirsky, assistant to the public security minister Yossi Melamed and Border Police officials.

Sharon asked the army to shorten the bureaucratic procedures necessary for transferring weapons from the IDF's emergency warehouses to the towns. Regional council leaders were also promised that the Defense Ministry would speed up the construction of electronic fences around the towns.

The regional council chiefs complained that they do not have enough equipment to make use of security volunteers. For example, the Menashe regional council has some 180 registered volunteers, but only one jeep.

The regional councils are expected to demand that the planned security fence will run along the entire 350 kilometers of the seam line. The current plan, they say, which includes 115 kilometers, will only be a partial solution to the problem.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2002