Israeli Cabinet OKs cash advances to settlers who leave homes

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Cabinet ministers approved cash advances Tuesday of up to $115,000 to Jewish settlers willing to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank -- the first concrete step toward carrying out Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's contentious pullout plan.

In a sign of growing tensions, Israeli police said Sharon and an official planning the withdrawal have been the targets of death threats by Jewish extremists.

Israeli security officials have repeatedly voiced concerns that opposition to Sharon could turn violent. Tuesday's statement by Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco marked the first time a senior security official has publicly issued such a warning.

Sharon wants to pull out of all 21 Gaza settlements and four small ones in the West Bank in 2005, removing 8,500 settlers from their homes. After four years of conflict with the Palestinians, Sharon says the moves are needed to improve security and pre-empt new international peace plans.

The prime minister hopes cash advances will entice many settlers to leave voluntarily, averting confrontations between settlers and troops.

Tuesday's 9-1 vote endorsed guidelines that would pay uprooted families a total of $200,000 to $350,000, depending on the size of their homes and how long they lived there, according to data presented to the ministers.

In the meantime, cash advances of up to one-third of the final compensation package will be offered from reserve funds, a senior official said on condition of anonymity. He said the funds could be available "within days."

Legislation formalizing the guidelines is expected to go to the parliament in November, the official said.

Settler leaders bitterly oppose any withdrawal. Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Settlers' Council, said the vote "proves this is a destructive, illegitimate government."

While the council has spoken out against violence, security officials fear rogue elements might attack the prime minister or sensitive Muslim sites to derail the plan.

The issue of death threats has been especially sensitive in Israel since the Nov. 4, 1995, assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an ultranationalist Jew opposed to peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Many settlers believe the West Bank is promised to the Jews by God, and they oppose any concessions to the Palestinians. Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza -- which the Palestinians claim for a future state -- in the 1967 Middle East war.

Franco, the Jerusalem police commander, said authorities are investigating death threats against Sharon and the director of his disengagement administration, Yonatan Bassi. Franco said the telephone threats were received at the administration office in Jerusalem.

"We have opened an intensive investigation regarding threats that have been received in recent days," Franco said. "The threats were to murder the prime minister and officials in the administration."

He said police confiscated signs calling for violence at a demonstration on Sunday by settlers in Jerusalem.

Bassi's picture appeared on a large poster at the demonstration with the words, "We will not forgive." Earlier that day, Sharon warned incitement by extremists could lead to civil war.

Security has been increased around the disengagement headquarters and for committee personnel, Franco said.

Bassi declined to comment, but Sharon's office issued a statement saying the disengagement administration is open for business and ready to assist settlers "in a sensitive, fair and professional manner."

Police were also investigating comments by a rabbi from the West Bank settlement of Psagot who called for Sharon's death, Channel Two TV reported.

The rabbi, Yosef Dayan, carried out a ceremony condemning Rabin to death before he was assassinated. The ceremony is known as "pulsa denura."

"If the rabbis will say that a pulsa denura should be held, I will be willing to carry it out immediately," Dayan told the TV station. "There are people who want Sharon dead ... I am among them. Is it forbidden for me to fight?"

Channel Two also reported that security has been stepped up at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem. The mosque sits on the hilltop where the biblical Jewish Temples once stood, making it one of the most sensitive areas in the region.

In West Bank violence Tuesday, a Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike blew himself up near a checkpoint in the West Bank, wounding two Israeli soldiers, one of them seriously, the army said.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. It said the bombing was meant to avenge the killing of three Al Aqsa members in an Israeli missile strike the day before.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Al Aqsa militants hijacked a police car and killed a man inside who was suspected of collaborating with Israel, Palestinian police officials said.

The car was taking Ramez Yaghmour to court when masked gunmen stopped the vehicle. The gunmen ordered officers out of the car, then opened fire on Yaghmour, police said. The militants then fled the scene.

Palestinian police said Yaghmour was arrested seven months ago on suspicion of leaking information about Al Aqsa militants to Israel.

Israeli intelligence frequently uses Palestinian informants to target wanted Palestinians. Dozens of suspected collaborators have been killed by fellow Palestinians, sometimes in public executions in front of large cheering crowds.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks firing machine guns moved after dark into a Palestinian area south of the Jewish settlement of Netzerim, residents said. No injuries or damage were immediately reported but authorities called on residents to move out of the area for fear troops would demolish homes.

The army did not immediately comment on the Gaza activity. Troops frequently act in areas where Palestinian militants fire rockets or mortar shells toward Israeli-controlled regions.