| Airport ready for operation; Palestinians await word from Israel | |
| The new Palestinian airport , a powerful symbol of fledgling independence , is ready to open, the head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority said Friday after an operations drill with Israeli officials. | |
| Yasser Arafat International Airport in the southern Gaza Strip was to have opened last week as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement . However, Israel fell behind schedule when it held up Cabinet ratification of the accord by two weeks. | |
| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the airport would start operating next week, but has not set a date. | |
| On Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian officials staged a four-hour drill, said Fayez Zeidan, head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority . | |
| About 100 Palestinian airport employees and 50 Israelis who will share security duties played the roles of passengers and airport personnel. For lack of a plane, the "passengers'' arrived by bus. | |
| Zeidan said the exercise covered arrival and departure procedures, including passport checks as well as customs and luggage inspection. | |
| He said the airport was ready for operation. "We just need to hear from the Israelis,'' Zeidan said. | |