Gunmen kill settler family of five during Gaza vote

JERUSALEM - Palestinian gunmen killed five Jewish settlers -- a mother and four daughters -- in Gaza on Sunday as members of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's party voted on his controversial plan to evacuate the territory.

President Bush provided unprecedented guarantees to the plan for "disengagement" from conflict with Palestinians. But settlers in Gaza mounted a strong "no" campaign saying pulling out would be a "reward to terror."

Polls before the vote predicted defeat in what would be an embarrassing blow to the historic move. Sunday's killing of settlers could harden "no" sentiment -- but also lend credit to the "yes" camp which see Gaza as more trouble than it is worth.

An Israeli army spokesman said the settler family was ambushed while in their car on the corridor road between Israel and Gush Katif, the main Gaza settlement cluster.

It was the first such killing in Gaza since December 2002, when a Gush Katif settler was ambushed on the same road.

The two gunmen were shot dead by Israeli troops shortly afterwards. Two Palestinian militant groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed joint responsibility for the killings in a telephone call to Reuters.

The referendum of right-wing Likud's 193,000 members was not binding and Sharon's aides said that even if his plan was rejected he would present it to his cabinet and to parliament.

But a "no" decision would deter skeptical Likud ministers and parliamentarians from backing the plan. A "yes" could also be problematic, risking a schism in Likud, defection of pro-settler nationalist coalition partners and early elections.

Sharon made an 11th-hour appeal for passage of his plan while heading to the weekly cabinet meeting.

"(It) will determine if Israel makes progress in all realms of life -- security, economy, education, employment and its relationship with the United States -- or rolls backward."

Sharon's unilateral scheme also entails holding on to larger West Bank settlement blocs containing the majority of Jews on territory Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

MOST ISRAELIS WANT OUT OF GAZA

Nationwide opinion polls favour Sharon's initiative, showing a majority of Israelis convinced tiny Gaza is a violence-ridden liability they should get rid of. Sharon has considered a national referendum to push his plan through.

Two internal Likud polls released just before the referendum affirmed others that found majorities against Sharon's bid to remove all 21 Gaza enclaves and four of 120 in the West Bank.

"We know the Arabs well, we can't give up a grain of land. Today they get a finger and tomorrow they'll want the entire hand," said Gad Cohen, 60, as he cast his ballot.

"People are voting based on their emotions," countered Yoram Gamish, 41, as he voted. "It's not that I'm happy to give up land, but I don't think we need Gaza. Keeping settlers there just intensifies Palestinian hatred."

Palestinians who began an uprising in 2000 welcome the prospect of Israelis quitting Gaza. Some 7,500 settlers live in 21 fortified enclaves taking up 20 per cent of the land, leaving 1.3 million impoverished Palestinians crammed into the rest.

But the Palestinians have denounced the West Bank aspect of Sharon's plan as it would strip them of land for a viable state promised them under Bush's "road map" peace plan, now in tatters.

"The Likud party cannot determine the future of the Palestinians. The road to peace is not by dictating facts on the ground," said Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat.

- REUTERS