Israel considers speeding up Gaza evacuation

Israel’s top security chiefs are looking to tighten the already shortened Gaza Strip evacuation timetable, defence and government officials said today.

Nearly half of all Jewish settler families, meanwhile, have sought compensation for the withdrawal, government officials said.

On August 15, Israel is to begin its forcible evacuation of Jewish settlers and their supporters who refuse to leave the Gaza Strip and four small northern West Bank settlements.

Security officials have allotted four weeks for removing resistant settlers - down from an original 12 – and at least an additional four weeks for demolishing homes and dismantling military bases.

But Maj Gen Dan Harel, the Gaza commander, told the Israeli parliament’s Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee in a closed-door session today that the military is prepared to evacuate the settlers within three weeks, Israel Radio said.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and other security officials urged Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday to complete the evacuation without pausing to assess it at various stages, a right the Cabinet assumed several months ago, security and government officials said.

The evacuation could be interrupted by Palestinian militants firing on settlers and troops to create the impression that Israel is retreating from Gaza under fire. Harel said Israel would first send in ground forces, then use air strikes if necessary, to stop the fire, Israel Radio reported.

Mofaz has said 41,000 soldiers and 4,000 police would be assigned to the pullout. Today, Israel launched its biggest drill for evacuation forces, an exercise involving more than 12,000 soldiers and police who will undergo evacuation simulations and sensitivity training.

The Yediot Ahronot newspaper cited military chief Lt Gen Dan Halutz as estimating that more than 70% of the settlers who are to be uprooted will leave voluntarily.

Some 8,500 settlers live in Gaza, and the military estimated today that they have been reinforced by 2,000 pullout opponents who have moved to the coastal strip to join the resistance.