Sharon: All 21 Gaza settlements to be removed at same time

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time instead of in three stages, officials said Monday, reflecting a major shift in tactics in his pullout plan.\nSharon's goal is to prevent drawn-out and violent confrontations between settlers and the security forces, as well as multiple confrontations in his Cabinet.\nAccording his "unilateral disengagement" plan as approved in June, the Gaza settlements are to be removed in three stages by the end of September 2005. Four small West Bank settlements are also to be evacuated.\nSharon presented the new formula to his Security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers, on Monday. Dropping the staged pullout of Gaza is meant to stifle criticism and limit armed resistance to what would be the first time Israel has ever removed authorized settlements in the West Bank or Gaza.\nSince Sharon first raised the plan in December, settlers have been organizing to resist. Though most of the 8,000 Gaza settlers are expected to accept compensation or alternative housing and leave quietly, a small hard core of settlers would likely dig in and try to fend off security forces.\nRemoving all 21 settlements at once would be practical, said political analyst Hanan Crystal.\n"If they do it in stages, the same thousand settlers will run from one place to the next" to resist, he told The Associated Press. "If they do it all at once, where can they run?"\nThe one-off evacuation also helps Sharon solve political problems. Faced with a Cabinet rebellion, Sharon rammed the plan through in June, but had to agree to additional votes for each stage of the evacuation.\nWelfare Minister Zevulun Orlev of the pro-settler National Religious Party said a Security Cabinet vote Monday, authorizing police to handle the actual removal of settlers, still does not obligate the government to evacuate the settlements.\n"It's all words," Orlev told Army Radio. "We approved all the backdrops, but there is no approval for the performance itself."\nSharon has already lost two battles over his pullout plan -- a nonbinding referendum by party members and a convention vote. The next confrontation is set for Tuesday.\nSharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the prime minister would present a timetable for Cabinet and parliament votes on the evacuation to his rebellious Likud Party legislative faction on Tuesday.\n"The prime minister made it clear that he is moving one step ahead with his determination to implement the disengagement plan," Gissin told Associated Press Television News. He said Sharon would present "the detailed, specific timetables and dates of the stages in the decision-making process."\nSharon refuses to coordinate the pullout with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, charging that it has not stopped militants from attacking Israelis.\nIn recent months, rival groups in Gaza have been maneuvering for position to take control after the Israeli exit, and there are warnings that Islamic militants could fill a power vacuum.\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia is to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, Egypt, on Tuesday to discuss the Gaza situation. Egypt is leading an effort for a smooth handover.\nSharon received a conditional boost from visiting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. After a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Fischer said if the Gaza plan presaged similar steps in the West Bank, "this would lead to a breakthrough, and we in Germany and the EU are ready to engage ourselves."\nFischer also said it was important for Israel to halt construction of West Bank settlements according to terms of the internationally backed "road map" peace plan. Israel has been building housing inside some settlements with tacit U.S. backing.\nEarly Tuesday in Gaza, Palestinians said a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed during an Israeli operation in the Rafah refugee camp on the Egyptian border. Israeli military sources said soldiers were tearing down an abandoned structure and fired on a suspicious Palestinian approaching them.\nOn Monday, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in the West Bank town of Jenin, aiming to kill a local militant, Palestinians said. The missiles missed the target and hit a different car, though no one was hurt. The military refused to comment.\nIn Gaza, Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement shot and killed a 34-year-old man outside his house.