Voters reject Sharon plan

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank was soundly rejected by his Likud Party yesterday, according to media polls.

The news will be seen as an embarrassing defeat for Sharon on another day of bloodshed in the country. The defeat left the future of his plan of “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinians in doubt.

Several hours after polls opened, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza killed a pregnant settler and her four young daughters as they headed into Israel to campaign against Sharon’s plan. It was the deadliest attack on Gaza settlers in two years.

Israel retaliated with an air strike on a Gaza radio station affiliated with the militant Hamas group, lightly injuring seven Palestinians in the 14-storey building, and with another strike on a car full of militants in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Supporters of Sharon’s plan argued that the violence underscored the hopeless burden of staying in Gaza.

Opponents said any withdrawal would be seen as a reward for terror and encourage more attacks on Israelis.

Sharon initially said he would consider the vote among the 193,000 Likud members as binding, but in recent days appeared to back away from that.

The defeat of the referendum could precipitate a major political crisis that could include a Cabinet reshuffle, a split in his party or even early elections.

Sharon even personalised the campaign in recent days, saying he considered it a vote of confidence in him and hinting he might resign if the plan was defeated. However, few believed he would quit.

Likud members make up only 4% of the Israeli electorate, and the low turnout - less than 50% – among even that fraction of voters could give Sharon room to ignore the referendum’s results.

Telephone polls conducted by Israel’s three main television stations gave opponents of the plan a lead of between 12 and 24 points.

“This is not good for the country and a terrible day for the party,” Likud minister Tzipi Livni told Channel 10 TV.

Sharon has said his plan to evacuate Gaza’s 21 settlements and four small West Bank settlements was vital – in the absence of other peace moves – to reducing the ongoing violence with the Palestinians and defusing international pressure on Israel.

“Those who vote ’no’ today will bring about an increase in terror,” Sharon said before the polls closed.

The US and the EU had welcomed the plan, which would be the first time Israel has ever uprooted settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, areas it captured during the 1967 Mideast war.

Palestinians greeted the plan with suspicion, angry that they were sidelined and worried that Israel was using the plan to cement its hold over much of the West Bank. Palestinians view settlements in both areas as illegal.

“From the beginning we said that the way to peace is through meaningful negotiations,” Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said.

Israel had gone on high alert today ahead of the referendum, dividing Gaza into three sections and restricting Palestinian travel.

But it did not prevent the attack on a family which Sharon blamed on militants’ efforts to scuttle his proposal.

“The terrible murder today is their way of rejecting and complicating the plan,” Sharon told reporters.

Tali Hatuel, 34 – who was eight months pregnant – and her four daughters aged between two to 11, were driving into Israel to campaign against the plan when gunmen fired on their white Citroen.

The car spun off the road and the attackers charged after it, shooting the five inside at close range, police said. The vehicle was riddled with bullets, its windows were blown away and the carpet was splattered with blood.

Soldiers raced to the scene and killed the attackers in a gun battle.

The militant Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group, claimed responsibility for what it called the “heroic” attack.

The groups said it was retaliation for Israel’s recent assassinations of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Hours later, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a high-rise building in Gaza housing a Hamas radio station, lightly injuring seven Palestinians.

And in another air strike in Nablus, Israel killed four Palestinian militants, including two leaders of a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, Palestinian security sources said.

The men were killed when a missile struck their car. An F-16 fighter plane was seen overhead at the time.