Massive Israeli protest at Gaza Strip withdrawal

TENS of thousands of Israelis were forming a human chain yesterday in a mass show of strength against government plans to pull all Jewish settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.

Organisers were hoping for a continuous line of protesters from Nissanit settlement in the north of the Palestinian territory to the centre of Jerusalem, a distance of some 90 kilometres.

Up to 15 MPs from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party were expected to take part in the protest, the largest organised so far against the so-called disengagement plan which will also involve the evacuation of four northern West Bank settlements but the de facto annexation of other larger settlement blocs.

Organisers said they expected more than 100,000 people to take part in the protest.

Rachel Saperstein, a resident of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza, had travelled to Jerusalem to join in the protest.

"We regard this as a test case. If they can do it to Gush Katif, other communities all over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and eventually Jerusalem will be disengaged from the country," she said.

"The people of Israel have a right to settle in any part of the historical land of Israel."

The pullout of all the Jewish residents of the 21 Gaza settlements is scheduled to be concluded by September 2005 and all troops should have left by the end of next year.

Sharon's cabinet approved the disengagement plan early last month but the move triggered the departure of three cabinet ministers, stripping the premier of a parliamentary majority.

Security officials have warned that Jewish extremists may be trying to scupper the Gaza pullout by planning a spectacular attack on Jerusalem's disputed mosque compound.

Sources told the Haaretz newspaper that they were studying the possibility that militants would try to crash an unmanned drone loaded with explosives or even a send a suicide bomber to crash into Muslim worshippers during a prayer session.

Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi warned on Saturday of a high risk of an attack by Jewish extremists against Islamic holy places on the compound, which is known as the Temple Mount by Jews and Al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims.

Authorities fear the extremists want to trigger a violent backlash by Palestinians that would make it impossible for Sharon to implement the departure from Gaza.

Meanwhile in Gaza itself, three Palestinians were wounded yesterday when an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a house in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, Palestinian security sources and medics said.

The house was said to be owned by Abu Malek Djoundieh, a member of the hardline Islamic movement Hamas, the security sources added.

Several people who had been inside the house were seen fleeing the area shortly before the strike and the three casualties were outside the building when they were hit.

Israeli troops also moved yesterday into the heart of the besieged northern town of Beit Hanun.

Both sides reported exchanges of gunfire and a 25-year-old Palestinian man was in a critical condition in hospital with bullet wounds to his chest, medics said.

Troops have effectively sealed off Beit Hanun since late last month in an effort to stop the firing of makeshift rockets by militants after two Israelis were killed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a few miles across the border.