JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday canceled a planned trip to the United States next week, including an expected visit with President Bush, saying he intended to focus his energies on patching together a new blueprint for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip after his party rejected his original plan.
Sharon told his Cabinet ministers during a stormy meeting that he will present them with a revised version of his "disengagement plan" in the next three weeks. He did not reveal what changes he is contemplating or how he would satisfy his deeply divided coalition.
The announcement was the latest sign of Sharon’s determination to push ahead with his plan after its overwhelming defeat in a May 2 referendum of Likud Party members. That vote, though nonbinding, would make it difficult for many Likud Cabinet ministers to support the plan.
The original plan called for a full pullout of Gaza, where 7,500 Israeli settlers and 1.3 million Palestinians live, and a withdrawal from four small West Bank settlements. Sharon said the plan to disentangle the Israeli and Palestinian populations would boost Israel’s security in the absence of a peace deal.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said Friday that Sharon still intends to evacuate all Gaza settlements. Aides told the Los Angeles Times that changes in the plan likely would be minor.
Hard-liners in the government oppose any territorial concessions. At the same time, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid of the moderate Shinui Party has threatened to quit the government if Sharon does not push forward with the Gaza withdrawal.
Later Sunday, Palestinian militants fired on a group of settlers holding a memorial ceremony at the spot along a road in the Gaza Strip where a pregnant woman and her four young daughters were killed by militants last week.
Scores of settlers, some carrying babies, jumped behind concrete barriers and scrambled to hide behind cars, according to television footage. One woman ran, carrying a baby carriage, for the safety of a nearby bus. Settlers armed with assault rifles returned fire.
Soldiers shot the two gunmen, confirming that at least one was killed.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the shooting.
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