Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet passed a bill on the nuts and bolts of pulling out of occupied Gaza on Sunday, a day before he seeks approval from the Israeli parliament for his withdrawal plan.
The plan would for the first time uproot Jewish settlements from land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want for a state. It has thrown Israeli politics into turmoil and stirred warnings of civil strife.
In a sign of opposition to Sharon close to home, six cabinet members - five from his right-wing Likud party - voted against the bill for compensating Jewish settlers who leave and punishing those who resist. It was supported by 13.
The plan - which polls show to have the support of most Israelis - is widely expected to pass with 67 votes in the 120-member Knesset only because Sharon would have left-wing opposition parties behind him.
Settlers are expected to get up to $500,000 per family for quitting the 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank next year. Any who clash with the soldiers evicting them face up to five years in jail.
"The law will make things as easy as possible for the settlers who will be evacuated and I am certain that even those who oppose the disengagement plan will not want to make things difficult for the settlers," Sharon said at the cabinet meeting.
SETTLER ANGER: Once the settlers' champion, Sharon has become the target of their ire. They stake a biblical claim to the land and say that leaving it will reward and encourage Palestinian attacks in a four-year-old uprising.
Sharon says his plan for "disengagement" from years of conflict with the Palestinians will make Israel easier to defend while strengthening its hold on West Bank settlements far bigger than those in Gaza - all with Washington's support.
TWO PALESTINIANS KILLED: Israeli forces killed two members of the Islamic Jihad group in a missile strike on southern Gaza early on Sunday, Palestinian witnesses said.
An internal report by government lawyers, leaked on Sunday, said Israel's withdrawal from Gaza would not end the Jewish state's occupation of the territory.
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