Gaza settlers thrilled at pullout plan defeat

1.00pm - By CYNTHIA JOHNSTON and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip/Gaza - Thumping tables with joy, Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip celebrated as it became clear the right-wing Likud party had overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan.

"We are thrilled. Just a few weeks ago, the polls said we had no chance," Mordechai Talb said at the settlers' campaign headquarters in southern Gaza's Gush Katif settlement bloc.

However, happiness was tempered by the killing of a settler and her four children, shot dead by Palestinian gunmen as they drove from Gaza to a polling station on Sunday to persuade Likud members to vote "No".

Across the barbed-wire fences around Gaza's settlements, some Palestinians celebrated too -- over the attack on the settlers by militants avenging Israel's assassination of leaders of the Hamas militant group.

"It was just the start and more martyrdom attacks will follow in Gaza, the West Bank and Tel Aviv inside occupied Palestine," chanted thousands at a rally by Islamic Jihad and another group that claimed joint responsibility.

One Islamic Jihad leader said the group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, would carry out more attacks on settlers until Israel was forced to withdraw.

"We are confident that the Likud party and Israel in general will eventually realise the bitter reality when they taste more of our continued martyrdom attacks. They will draw painful conclusions that they have to flee Gaza immediately," he said.

Exit polls showed the Likud had overwhelming rejected Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank, in a stinging defeat for Sharon that could lead to a political crisis and sideline his withdrawal plans.

"I am really torn inside," said Rivka Goldschmidt, a Gush Katif settler. "I should have been dancing on the roof with joy but I can't allow myself to do so. A family in Gush Katif was wiped out."

The pregnant settler and her four daughters aged 11, 9, 7 and 2 were shot dead in the attack on their car near Gush Katif. The army said the gunmen shot them almost at point-blank range before fleeing.

On the other side of the front line, Palestinians showed mixed emotions at the setback to Sharon's plan to quit Gaza, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians had initially expressed concern the plan was a ruse to seize West Bank land, but many were perturbed at the possibility Israel would remain in the narrow coastal strip where 7500 settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians.

"If that means Israel will not leave Gaza, then it would be very bad. We dreamt that Gaza would be clean of their dirt. I would be disappointed if it meant they would stay here," said one woman who called herself Umm Ahmed.

- REUTERS

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