Gaza evacuation to start in August

Israel will officially encourage its Jewish settlers in Gaza to leave their homes in exchange for compensation – months before a Cabinet vote to approve evacuation of the settlements.

The government timetable, presented yesterday to the committee preparing the pull-out, calls for completion of the process by the end of September next year, three months ahead of the original target.

Settlers refusing to leave will be removed by force in the final month.

The document was a sign of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s determination to go ahead with the pullout, despite opposition from hardliners who this week deprived him of his parliamentary majority and threatened to bring him down.

Also, some Cabinet opponents were won over by his pledge to bring the four stages of settlement evacuation before separate votes, but the timetable means that the votes would be meaningless.

In Washington, Sharon adviser Zalman Shoval said the houses at the settlements would be destroyed, but the public buildings would remain. He told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a private research group, that many Israelis did not want to see Palestinian flags flying from homes once occupied by Israeli Jews.

According to the plan, 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank would be evacuated by September 15, 2005, and the army would pull out of Gaza by the end of that month. The process would begin with voluntary exit by settlers, beginning in August this year, in exchange for compensation.

The Cabinet approved the withdrawal plan on Sunday, the first time Israel has decided in principle to remove veteran settlements from the West Bank or Gaza.

The timetable for evacuation of the 7,500 Jewish settlers and the military was put together by Israel’s National Security Council. The document was handed to representatives of government ministries during a first meeting Wednesday of the committee planning the pullout.

Israeli officials said Wednesday’s meeting reflected the prime minister’s determination to push forward with his plan.

“He is as determined as can be,” said the senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Following the Cabinet vote, he said, the plan is ”irrevocable.”

The voluntary settler evacuation period would continue until July 2005.

In Gaza violence on Wednesday, a Palestinian was killed as Israeli troops moved into Palestinian areas, surrounded a house and flattened farmland, residents said. Palestinian militants fired a rocket at an Israeli town from the area on Tuesday. The military said soldiers returned fire after an anti-tank missile was fired at them.