Israeli cabinet approves Gaza pull-out

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Cabinet has given strong support to a key element of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and four West Bank settlements, setting up what is expected to be a fiery parliamentary debate and vote on the controversial program.\nIn Gaza, Israeli troops raided a Palestinian refugee camp in response to mortar fire early Monday, killing 10 Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy, hospital officials said. Forty-five Palestinians were wounded.\nThe parliament debate, starting Monday afternoon, is the first time parliament will have a chance to discuss the "unilateral disengagement" plan since Sharon unveiled it earlier this year. Sharon is expected to win a preliminary vote on the plan scheduled for Tuesday, but only with the support of dovish opposition parties.\nThousands of police officers were to be deployed, particularly around parliament, to keep roads open. Thousands of demonstrators, in favor and against the plan, were expected to march near the Knesset. Police kept helicopters on standby to fly legislators to the building should protesters block the roads.\nSharon says his plan is necessary to boost Israel's security after four years of fighting with the Palestinians. He says the pullout, combined with a West Bank barrier under construction, also would enable Israel to strengthen its hold on large settlement blocs in the West Bank, where most settlers live.\nJewish settlers accuse Sharon of caving in to Palestinian violence and fear the withdrawal will be the first step in a larger pullback.\nThe disengagement plan, which would mark the first time Israel pulled down Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza since capturing those territories in 1967, has led to bitter divisions in Sharon's Likud Party, with many of its hardline lawmakers opposed to it.\nNevertheless, his Cabinet passed a key part of the plan, a compensation program for settlers who are to be evicted from their homes next year, by a 13-6 vote on Sunday.\nThe Cabinet victory, though expected, gave Sharon important momentum in the run-up to a far more important test Tuesday, when the Knesset, Israel's parliament, is to vote for the first time on the entire withdrawal plan. Sharon is expected to win that vote, but he needs a strong majority to marginalize his opponents.\n"The train has left the station, the implementation is under way," government spokesman Raanan Gissin said of Sharon's plan. "After the Knesset vote on Tuesday, we will be in an irreversible process."\nA victory Tuesday does not ensure that Sharon's plan will be adopted. Parliament and the Cabinet will have to vote at least once more -- and perhaps several more times -- to approve actual evacuations, and Sharon's government could fall on other issues, including the budget, before the plan is implemented.\nSunday's Cabinet vote endorsed guidelines for compensating the estimated 8,800 settlers slated to be forced from their homes next year.\nThe plan would pay affected settler families between $200,000 to $350,000 in compensation. Sharon hopes settlers will accept cash advances to leave well ahead of the official evacuation, heading off confrontations between settlers and troops.\nThe Cabinet also approved penalties, including prison terms, for resistant settlers. The guidelines will be turned into a bill and sent to parliament.\nViolence in Gaza has increased in the months since Sharon announced his plan, with Palestinian militants trying to prove they are forcing Israel out, and Israel trying to crush the militants to show it is not withdrawing under fire.\nEarly Monday, scores of Israeli armored vehicles moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp in an operation the army said was sparked by recent mortar attacks on nearby Israeli settlements.\nThe raid, punctuated by repeated airstrikes, killed 10 Palestinians and wounded 45 doctors said. Two Israelis soldiers were wounded when Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at their armored personnel carrier, the army said.\nThe army said it demolished the home of a local Hamas leader who was responsible for attacks that killed eight Israelis.