Israel OKs Gaza Relocation Plan

JERUSALEM â€”  Israel’s government approved a relocation plan Sunday under which Jewish settlers who move from the Gaza Strip would be granted the right to purchase small parcels of land in a nearby coastal area.

Cabinet ministers voted 14 to 2 to approve relocating families to an area known as Nitzanim, about 12 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The plan would establish a separate local government for the new community if enough residents sign up to move there.

The relocation plan has drawn fire from environmentalists who say the new housing project would endanger plants and wildlife in a neighboring stretch of dunes. Two ministers from the left-leaning Labor Party accused the government of offering seafront land to settlers at a price far below market value and said creating a new local government could be a burden to Israeli taxpayers.

“Extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions,� Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responded during the closed-door session, according to an aide quoted by Reuters.

The government, which is racing to get settlers to agree to leave their homes before the pullout begins in mid-August, offered additional incentives in the plan approved Sunday. Under its terms, a new local government would be established for the community of relocated settlers if at least 5,000 residents make the move. Having its own local council would give the community access to additional government financial aid and jobs. If fewer than 5,000 sign up, the settlers would be governed by the neighboring city of Ashkelon.

Settlers would be allowed to purchase parcels in Nitzanim for about $50,000 for a one-eighth acre lot, or $80,000 for a quarter-acre piece, according to the plan. The amounts would be deducted from the compensation families will receive from the government to cover the losses of their Gaza homes. That compensation will range from $200,000 to $500,000, depending on the size of the family and how long its members have lived in Gaza.

So far, about 400 Gaza families have indicated their willingness to move as a group to the new community, Israeli media have reported. The government has begun bringing caravans to the area to house people while permanent homes are built.

The Israeli withdrawal calls for the evacuation of all 21 Gaza settlements and four others in the northern West Bank, where some 9,000 Jewish settlers live.

Also Sunday, Israeli soldiers and settlers scuffled as the army demolished a string of concrete structures in Gaza that activists had begun rehabilitating ahead of the planned withdrawal. The battered concrete shells housed Egyptian soldiers before Israel captured the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War.

In recent weeks, settlers moved into several of the buildings after replacing roofs and adding drywall interiors. Authorities have recently monitored dozens of other right-wing Jewish activists who have moved into a formerly abandoned hotel nearby. The activists are suspected in a violent episode against several Palestinians a week ago that included beatings and an alleged shooting.

In other developments, an Israeli teenager died of wounds he had suffered Friday after Palestinian gunmen opened fire near the West Bank town of Hebron. Aviad Mansour, 16, is the second person killed by the shooting; a 17-year-old boy died in the assault on a roadside spot where hitchhikers await rides.

The incident, the second fatal shooting targeting Jewish settlers along West Bank roads last week, came as growing violence threatens nearly five months of relative calm.

At a summit in February, Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced a suspension of violence between the two sides. Abbas later persuaded the main Palestinian militant groups to agree to observe calm against Israel. But that quiet has showed signs of fraying amid charges by each side that the other was not fulfilling its obligations.