Sharon stuns settlers, own MPs with plan to evacuate all Gaza settlements
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) stunned Jewish settlers and members of his own party by revealing that he had ordered plans to be drawn up for the evacuation of all settlements in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
Sharon told the online edition of the Haaretz daily that he had "given an order to plan for the evacuation" of all 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip with a total population of 7,500.
"It is my intention to carry out an evacuation -- sorry, a relocation -- of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements," Sharon said.
"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza."
Sharon has been threatening to implement his own unilateral "disengagement" plan within months if no progress is made in the peace process with the Palestinians.
While he had previously admitted that unilateral measures would involve the evacuation of some Jewish settlements, Monday's comments marked the first time he had indicated the scale or location of the pullout.
Under his disengagement plan, Israel would likely evacuate a much smaller number of settlements than in any definitive deal reached with the Palestinians through the internationally drafted peace roadmap.
Jewish settler leaders in the Gaza Strip vowed to do everything in their power to bring down Sharon's government if he tried to carry out the plans.
"The regional council of settlers in the Gaza Strip expresses its regrets following these unfortunate proposals," they said in a statement.
"The settlers will not shy away from any effort, with other elements of the nationalist camp, to cut short the mandate of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by any possible legal means."
Avner Shimoni, the president of the council in Gaza, said any evacuation would only serve to massively increase the number of attacks by Palestinians against Israel.
"It is a unilateral concession," he said. "We are fleeing, pure and simple."
Sharon's right-coalition government contains a number of parties with close links to the settlers while some members of his own Likud party have also vehemently opposed any evacuation plan.
One Likud MP said that deputies had been stunned when Sharon briefed them on the plans.
"I am simply in a state of complete shock and stupefaction at what he has said," said Yehiel Hazan, the head of the settler lobby within the party.
"I am convinced that his plan will never obtain the green light from the leadership institutions of Likud," he told public radio.
However the Palestinians reacted with scepticism to Sharon's comments, wary that the plan could be little more than a publicity stunt.
"No Palestinian would stand against the evacuation of any Israeli settlement," chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"I am afraid, however, that again we are hearing and seeing declarations aimed at public consumption and public relations."
The US administration has warned Sharon not to implement measures that could undermine the roadmap and Sharon has said any action will be carried out in close coordination with the Americans.
Sharon reiterated Monday that he regarded US backing as essential for his project to proceed.
"It has to be done with American agreement and support. We need their support," he said.
"We are talking of a population of 7,500 people -- it's not a simple matter. We are talking of thousands of square kilometres of hothouses, factories and packing plants, people there who are third generation."
Meanwhile four Palestinians, including a local leader of the hardline Islamic Jihad group, were shot dead in the south of the territory early Monday by Israeli troops conducting an arrest operation, witnesses and medical sources said.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that an operation had been launched near Rafah to arrest wanted members of Islamic Jihad.
A member of the Hamas movement was also shot dead during an arrest operation by the Israeli army near Bethlehem in which five soldiers were wounded, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said.
The latest deaths bring to 3,737 the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, including 2,794 Palestinians and 875 Israelis.