Israelis kill five as Sharon rejects opposition

ISRAELI troops killed five Palestinian militants in gun battles yesterday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to dampen rising pressure for a referendum on his plan to withdraw from occupied Gaza.

In a rare episode of its kind, two Hamas militants breached the new security fence along Gaza’s border with Israel and moved in on a kibbutz, or collective farm, for an attack when they were spotted and shot dead by troops, military sources said.

Two other militants were killed while trying to plant a bomb near a Jewish settlement in an occupied part of southern Gaza, the Islamic Jihad group said. Another militant was killed, and a soldier hurt, near another settlement, a military source said.

Israeli opinion polls show a solid majority for Sharon’s plan to evacuate 8,000

Jewish settlers from Gaza and some of 230,000 from the West Bank next year in order to “disengage” from conflict with the Palestinians.

But opposition from

ultra-nationalist settlers and their political patrons has unravelled Sharon’s right-wing coalition and he now faces calls for a referendum on “disengagement”, even from proponents of his plan within his divided Likud party.

Sharon believes that a referendum would play into the hands of foes by delaying withdrawals beyond 2005 and leaving them vulnerable to a general election scheduled the following year.

Early elections would be Sharon’s last resort if his plan foundered on the rocks of his coalition. But he poured cold water on media reports he was now considering going to a vote.

“The prime minister believes we must refrain from dragging the people into an election campaign at a time when the political and economic programme is being carried out,” his office said in a statement.

Referendum advocates, including most of Likud’s parliament deputies who were to debate the way ahead in a meeting with Sharon yesterday, say it could safeguard political stability in Israel and deter possible violence.

Rebels in Sharon’s camp reject any pullout from Gaza as “a reward to

Palestinian terrorism” and have gained strength from an upsurge of attacks by militants bent on proving they chased settlers out of Gaza.

Settler leaders failed at a stormy meeting with Sharon on Sunday to win him over to a referendum. They called his stance “a disgrace” and hinted that it could stir violent resistance.

Firing back yesterday, Sharon told reporters: “I think the worst thing possible is to buckle to threats of violence.”

The umbrella YESHA Council of Jewish settlements issued an open letter yesterday saying it would oppose violence whether a referendum was held or not.

But Sharon has criticised what he has called incitement by foes of withdrawals, including influential pro-settler rabbis who see territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war as Jewish by biblical birthright.