JERUSALEM, Aug 23 (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told MPs Monday that the government planned to pull Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank enclaves in one go rather than in phases.
"The ministry proposes to evacuate the settlements in one go and not in phases as initially envisaged," Mofaz told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
His declaration appeared to fly in the face of a cabinet vote in June in which ministers gave their backing to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan with the proviso that each phase of the evacuation process be subject to a separate vote.
Sharon wants to have all the 8,000 settlers out of Gaza by September next year and all security forces are scheduled to have left the territory by the end of 2005.
Mofaz, one of Sharon's closest allies in a heavily divided cabinet, told the committee that the army would supervise the withdrawal process with the backing of police but added that the government had made no actual operational decision on the issue, according to a parliamentary source.