Israel okays West Bank pullout

A settlers stands close to a burning barricade blocking the gate to the Gaza Strip settlement of Katif to prevent the Israeli army uproot operation of Jewish settlers yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The vote to dismantle the West Bank settlements of Ganin, Kadim, Homesh and Sanur was passed overwhelmingly by 16 votes to four. Ganin and Kadim have already been fully emptied of all settlers.

The decision should seal Sharon's place in the history books as the first Israeli leader to sanction the pullout from any part of an area known by Jews as northern Samaria, the heart of Biblical Israel.

The vote also gives the government clearance to evacuate settlers from three settlements in the nothern Gaza Strip -- Dugit, Nissanit and Elei Sinai -- as Israel pushes ahead with its operations to dismantle its 38-year occupation of the Palestinian territory.

Dugit and Nissanit are already empty while only a small number of families are still living in Elei Sinai.

Israel began its occupation of the West Bank after the 1967 war with its Arab neighbours, slowly but surely building settlements across the territory which should form the bulk of the Palestinians' promised future state.

Sharon has made no apologies about the West Bank settlement programme, saying in a speech last week that it will "continue and develop".

Earlier Israeli forces bypassed a burning barricade and marched into one of the last inhabited Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza on Sunday, hoping to completely evacuate the biggest bloc of enclaves in the area.

Confrontation loomed as several hundred young radicals, reinforcing dozens of settler families that ignored last week's army directive to leave the Gaza Strip, awaited troops sent to remove them from a cluster of settlements.

Protesters set fire to bales of hay, tyres and wooden crates at the main entrance to the settlement of Katif. Dozens of soldiers ignored the barricade, which belched black smoke into the clear summer sky, and entered through a nearby fence.

Katif settler Haim Ben-Arieh said he hoped for Divine intervention.

"The great miracle can happen here, in Katif, with God's help," said Ben-Arieh, a religious Jew.

Only four of the 21 Gaza settlements, built on territory Palestinians want for a state, remain after forced evacuations last week, during which settlers were carried weeping from their homes and protesters were pulled screaming from synagogues.

The World Court says Jewish settlements are illegal. Israel disputes this.

President Mahmoud Abbas decreed that the Palestinian Authority would take over all the settlements as the Israelis pull out under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians.