Sharon seeks new plan for Gaza strip

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scrambling to come up with alternatives, including a possible pullout from just five Jewish settlements, after his Likud Party overwhelmingly rejected a withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, a senior government official said today.

In Gaza, an Israeli missile strike killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, and wounded 22 others, in fighting in a refugee camp.

Sharon had promoted a “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinians for several months, and Likud’s rejection of the plan in a referendum on Sunday dealt a tough blow to the prime minister.

Sharon pledged to find an alternative that would be more acceptable to his hard-line party.

However, he is also under pressure from a key coalition partner, the moderate Shinui Party, to push forward with his peace efforts.

Shinui leader Yosef Lapid met with Sharon today and said the prime minister assured him he would seek to win approval for an altered disengagement plan.

“He (Sharon) convinced me that he intends to continue with peace efforts, and this a prerequisite for Shinui remaining in the government,” Lapid told Army Radio.

Sharon’s original plan envisaged an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, home to 7,500 settlers in 21 settlements who live amid 1.3 million Palestinians, and the evacuation of four small settlements in the West Bank by the end of 2005.

A senior government official said Sharon was considering a scaled-back withdrawal from three settlements in Gaza and two in the West Bank.

Later today, Sharon was to meet with Labour Party leader Shimon Peres, who favours new elections. Sharon has been paralysed by right-wing pressure, Peres told Israel Army Radio.

Sharon said he would present his new plan to parliament and to the Cabinet, but not to another party referendum.

In Gaza, an Israeli attack helicopter fired a missile early today at a group of armed Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, killing two and wounding 22, residents and doctors said.

Witnesses said gunmen fired two missiles at Israeli tanks in the camp before the helicopter struck.

Palestinian hospital officials said one of those killed was a 25-year-old member of the militant Hamas group. The other victim, a 16-year-old boy, was a civilian. Doctors at Khan Younis hospital said five of the wounded were in critical condition.

Israeli forces withdrew from the area early today, the army said.

Israeli troops took up positions around Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office building in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli military officials said soldiers were arresting suspects, but the operation was not linked to Arafat’s office. There were no reports of gunfire and the soldiers were later withdrawn.