Sharon signals possible delay in Gaza pullout

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signalled he might delay a Gaza withdrawal until mid-August to avoid an annual Jewish mourning period that marks the destruction of two biblical temples.

Citing religious sensibilities that could further anger settlers facing evacuation from the occupied Gaza Strip, a Sharon aide had asked that the evacuation of settlements set to start on July 20 be put off for three weeks.

But political sources said the government, which has lagged in preparations for the withdrawal, could also be buying more time to train security forces for possibly violent far-right resistance and to lay the groundwork for relocating settlers.

"Every effort must be made to make it easier for people to get through this crisis," Sharon said. "This issue will certainly be raised at a ministerial committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday local time) and a decision will have to be made."

In a separate development, Israel unveiled plans to build 50 new homes in a West Bank settlement, a week after United States President George W Bush called on Sharon not to expand settlements in a rare public airing of differences between the two close allies.

Palestinians, who want all of the West Bank and Gaza for a future state, condemned the construction plan.

In the latest violence to strain an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire declared on February 8, Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded two Israelis near an army post in southern Gaza.

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a coalition of militants, claimed responsibility for the shooting. It said it was avenging the military's killing of three unarmed Palestinian youths, shot in disputed circumstances in Rafah on April 9, and of a militant during a raid into a refugee camp in the West Bank last week.

The PRC has not accepted the ceasefire.

Yonatan Bassi, a government official managing relocation of 9000 settlers for evacuation under the prime minister's plan for "disengaging" from conflict with the Palestinians, pressed Sharon on Sunday to postpone the pullout.

Sharon may fear that violating Jewish tradition would only aggravate opposition to his plan from settlers, many of whom are religious Jews loath to give up occupied land they consider theirs by biblical birthright.

But he could be reluctant to postpone a withdrawal he has fought for more than a year to push through, since it would give ultranationalist opponents more time to organise resistance.

A Sharon confidant said the prime minister might agree to a delay, however, if settler leaders promise to go quietly, though he would also insist on shortening the evacuation timetable.

If no decision is made on Tuesday, Sharon could wait until after the weeklong Passover holiday that begins on Saturday.

Bassi wants to begin the evacuation, scheduled to last a month, after the Ninth of Av fast day on August 15 that caps the period in which Jews mourn the loss of the two biblical temples in Jerusalem in ancient times.

"During this period, Jews should not move house," said Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a West Bank settler, citing Orthodox tradition for one of the most solemn observances on the Jewish calendar.

Any delay could require redrawing the timetable for removing all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank.

- REUTERS