Likud voters defeat Sharon's Gaza pullout

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party rejected his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank on Sunday, media polls indicated, an embarrassing defeat for the premier.

The stinging result left the future of Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians in doubt and his leadership in disarray. It could precipitate a major political crisis -- a Cabinet reshuffle, a split within the party or even early elections.

With all the votes counted, opponents of the plan had 60 percent and supporters only 39 percent, Army Radio reported early Monday.Despite intensified security for the vote, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza killed a pregnant settler and her four daughters as they headed into Israel to campaign against Sharon's scheme. It was the deadliest attack on Gaza settlers in two years.

Israel retaliated with an airstrike on a Gaza radio station affiliated with the militant Hamas group, lightly injuring seven Palestinians in the 14-story building, and with another strike on a car full of militants in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Supporters of Sharon's "disengagement plan" argued that the violence underscored the hopeless burden of staying in Gaza. Opponents said any withdrawal would be seen as a reward for terror and encourage more attacks.

Sharon initially said he would consider the vote among the 193,000 Likud members as binding but in recent days appeared to back away from that.

The defeat of the referendum could precipitate a major political crisis that could include a Cabinet reshuffle, a split in Likud or even early elections.

Sharon personalized the campaign in recent days, saying he considered it a vote of confidence in him and hinting he might resign if the plan was defeated. Few believe he would step down.

Likud members make up only 4 percent of the Israeli electorate, and the low turnout -- less than 50 percent -- among even that fraction of voters could give Sharon room to ignore the results.

Telephone polls by Israel's three main television stations gave opponents of the plan a lead of anywhere from 12 to 24 percentage points.

"This is not good for the country, and a terrible day for the party," Likud minister Tzipi Livni told Channel 10 TV.

Sharon has said his plan to evacuate Gaza's 21 settlements and four small West Bank settlements was vital -- in the absence of other peace moves -- to reducing the ongoing violence with the Palestinians and defusing international pressure on Israel.

"Those who vote 'no' today will bring about an increase in terror," Sharon said Sunday.

The United States and European Union welcomed the plan, which would be the first time Israel has ever uprooted settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, areas it captured during the 1967 Mideast war.

Palestinians greeted the plan with suspicion, angry that they were sidelined and worried that Israel was using the plan to cement its hold over much of the West Bank. Palestinians view settlements in both areas as illegal.

"From the beginning, we said that the way to peace is through meaningful negotiations," Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said.

Sharon had done little campaigning until polls, which had previously shown strong support for the plan, tightened in recent days. Settlers, however, began campaigning against the attack almost immediately, plastering posters throughout the streets and making personal visits to Likud voters' homes.

Israel went on high security alert Sunday ahead of the referendum, dividing Gaza into three sections and restricting Palestinian travel.

Sharon blamed militants trying to scuttle his proposal for the attack on the Gaza family. "The terrible murder today is their way of rejecting and complicating the plan," he told reporters.

Tali Hatuel, 34 -- who was eight months pregnant -- and her four daughters, ages two to 11, were driving into Israel when gunmen fired on their white Citroen station wagon near the Kissufim crossing.

The car spun off the road and the attackers charged it, shooting the five inside at close range, Israeli police said. The wagon was riddled with bullets, its windows blown away and carpet splattered with blood. A bumper sticker on the car read: "Uprooting the settlements -- a victory for terror."

Soldiers raced to the scene and killed the attackers in a gunbattle. Two soldiers were wounded, the army said.

The family lived in Katif -- one of 21 communities housing 7,500 Jews living amid the 1.3 million Palestinians in the narrow, 25-mile-long seaside strip.

The militant Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group, claimed responsibility for what it called the "heroic" attack. The groups called it retaliation for Israel's recent assassinations of Hamas founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Some media reports said the attackers, Ibrahim Mohammad Hammad, 22, and Faisal Abu Naqira, 26, were dressed as shepherds. The Islamic Jihad group planned a march Sunday evening celebrating the attack.

"The blood of the holy warriors will be united to become bombs of death and fear in the hearts of the enemy," read a statement on the Web site of the Popular Resistance Committee.

Hours later, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a Gaza building housing a Hamas radio station, lightly injuring seven Palestinians.

The other apparent airstrike in Nablus killed four Palestinian militants, including two leaders of a group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, Palestinian security sources said. The men were killed when a missile struck their car, they said. An F-16 fighter plane was seen overhead at the time.

Since Sharon announced his plan, violence has increased in Gaza, with militants trying to show they are forcing Israel to flee and Israel trying to decapitate the groups before a pullout.

Cabinet minister Gideon Ezra said the attack on the family Sunday showed that Israel had to leave the quagmire of Gaza.

"Thousands of soldiers are required to protect" the settlers, he said. "I would put our soldiers in other places."

Supporters also said a pullout was needed to maintain Israel's Jewish majority -- since Arabs will soon outnumber Jews in the combined area of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Settlers said the shooting was a direct result of Sharon's plan. "It's the other side trying to show that we are leaving because we are weak," said Ezra Haidu, 32, a neighbor of the slain woman.

Sharon's plan would have represented a dramatic reversal for Likud, a traditionally pro-settler party that has deeply opposed any withdrawal from West Bank and Gaza land.