Gaza pullout to take 2 weeks

2005-07-10 09:41

Jerusalem - Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank should take no more than two weeks, Israeli deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Sunday.

"I think it will take no more than two weeks. I think that it shouldn't take more than two weeks," he told the English language Jerusalem Post daily.

The government has previously said that it expects the operation to uproot the 8 000 settlers in Gaza and the residents of four small Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank to take around a month, but hopefully less.

Troops are expected to remain behind in Gaza for a short time after the pullout to dismantle their bases.

Olmert said that the government was keen to avoid a confrontation with settlers and their supporters and had therefore decided not to seal off the territory months before the pullout operation which he said would start on August 17.

Gaza was declared a closed military zone for one day last month during an operation to storm a hotel where hardline settlers and their supporters had turned into a base. However the order was lifted the next day.

The government was keeping the territory open precisely so that it would not become involved in "confrontations and battle" with opponents of disengagement that would last two months, said Olmert.

The aim was to "focus on the short period starting on the 17th and carry out (the disengagement plan) as fast as possible."

Olmert is seen as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief ally in government and was one of the earliest exponents of disengagement.

The project is "a major undertaking for Israel" and a "very painful" one, he said.

- AFP