Plan for gradual Gaza pullout

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would seek Cabinet approval next week for a gradual Gaza withdrawal as an Egyptian envoy headed to the West Bank with a warning for Yasser Arafat not to sabotage such a pullback.

Mr Sharon’s plan for a gradual Gaza withdrawal replaces a pullout plan rejected by his Likud Party earlier this month.

In the Rafah refugee camp, thousands of Palestinians buried 16 of the 41 people killed in a six-day Israeli offensive, chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel!” Israeli troops withdrew from a Rafah neighbourhood, leaving behind streets flooded with sewage and lined with damaged homes and crushed cars.