Fact file: Jewish settlers in Gaza face Sharon eviction notice

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today he is planning to evacuate 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip in an apparent move to disengage Israel unilaterally from the Palestinians.

* Between 7000 and 8000 Israelis live in 20 fortified settlements among 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, a coastal strip measuring 360sq km.

* Under a 1993 interim peace deal, Palestinians won self-rule over 79 per cent of Gaza. Israel retained control of the rest. Palestinians want all West Bank and Gaza settlements removed to make way for a Palestinian state in a final accord.

* A longtime champion of Jewish settlements, Sharon made a turnaround last year under pressure to implement a US-led peace "road map". Addressing hawkish Likud party members last month, he said: "It is clear Jews will not remain in Gaza forever."

* The first Gaza settlement, Kfar Darom, was founded in 1970 as what Israel's then left-wing government called a strategic buffer against any future hostilities with Egypt.

* Construction was boosted after 1982, when Israel evacuated its settlements in the occupied Sinai peninsula under a peace accord with Egypt. Gaza's biggest settlement, Neve Dekalim, was built in 1983.

* Palestinians accuse Israel of continued land appropriations for settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel defends these as necessary to build bypass roads and clear areas used by militants to mount attacks in an uprising that began in 2000.

* Gaza has little of the biblical significance that draws Jews to settle the West Bank. Samson toppled the Philistine temple there. Gaza City also boasts a 7th-century synagogue.

Sources: YESHA settler council, Peace Now, Reuters