Poll objects to Israeli pullout

JERUSALEM – Members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party soundly rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in a referendum Sunday, in a sharp rebuke to Sharon and U.S. President George Bush, who strongly endorsed the plan.

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.

The partial vote results left the future of Sharon’s “unilateral disengagement” from the Palestinians in doubt and his leadership in disarray. The outcome could precipitate a major political crisis – a Cabinet reshuffle, a split within the party or even early elections. Final vote results were expected today.

The prime minister, who had said he considered the polling a vote of confidence in his leadership, said he respected the results but would not resign. Close supporters said disengagement was inevitable, despite the referendum outcome.

Sharon said he would consult with party and government officials on his next steps and suggested he would continue to push ahead with his plan.

“One thing is clear to me: The people of Israel did not want me to sit for four years with my hands folded. I was chosen to find a way to bring this nation the calm, peace and security that it so deserves,” he said in a statement.

Though security was intensified for the vote, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza killed a pregnant settler, who was a campaigner against Sharon’s plan, and her four young daughters.

Tali Hatuel, 34 – who was eight months pregnant – and her four daughters, ages 2 to 11, were driving into Israel to protest Sharon’s proposal when gunmen fired on their white 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 car was riddled with bullets. A bumper sticker on the car read: “Uprooting the settlements – a victory for terror.”

Israeli soldiers killed the attackers in a gunbattle at the scene.

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

The Islamic Jihad group scheduled a march Sunday evening celebrating the attack.

Israel retaliated with an airstrike on a Gaza radio station affiliated with Hamas, lightly injuring seven Palestinians in the 14-story building. Israel also retaliated Sunday night with the targeted killing of four Palestinian militants in a missile strike on their car 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 on Israelis.

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 wiggle room to ignore the nonbinding referendum’s results. Polls show that about 60 percent of the general public supports the disengagement plan.