JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon battled at the weekend to prepare for key votes in cabinet and parliament on his Gaza pullout plan, vehemently opposed by Jewish settlers, the extreme right and a hard core of his own Likud party.
The climax of campaign will occur on Tuesday during a parliamentary vote on Sharon's plan which involves Israeli evacuating the Gaza Strip, moving out the 8,000 settlers living there and closing down four small settlements in the north of the West Bank.
The pullout is due to be completed by September 2005, but Sharon -- once hailed as the champion of the settler movement -- has faced death threats over the plan.
Political commentators expect Sharon to win the backing of 66 MPs in the 120-seat Knesset or parliament, with some 40 voting against. The support of the opposition Labour party should balance out Sharon's opponents in his own Likud party who will vote against him.
On Sunday, the cabinet is expected to decide on a bill detailing the way the withdrawal will be handled, before parliament begins debating the pullout on Monday.
According to the draft, the prime minister, with cabinet backing, can decide exactly which sectors will be evacuated and when, an official told AFP.
Sharon, after consulting the defence and internal security ministers, can also impose a total or partial ban on protestors whose presence in a particular area may disrupt the pullout.
One section of the draft envisages penalties of three to five years in prison for those who impede the project by going into banned areas, those who obstruct security forces involved in evacuating settlers, destroy buildings or block access to settlements.
On the international front, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Friday that the Europeans were preparing a plan to go alongside the pullout from Gaza.
After meeting Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath in Paris, he said the plan would have a Euro-Arab dimension to ensure the success of the withdrawal, mentioning in particular "the major question of security".
The Palestinian minister said Barnier had "spoken of European guarantees to ensure the pullout of Gaza, to make this withdrawal a success."
Meanwhile Israel gave the okay for three Tunisian doctors to come to Ramallah, in the West Bank, to check on the health of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The 75-year-old Arafat, president of the Palestinian authority, has been confined by the Israeli army to his headquarters in in Ramallah since December 2001, dismissed by Israel and the United States as an impediment to peace.
"It is a humanitarian request from a country (Tunisia) with which we are in regular contact and we agreed to meet their request," a foreign ministry official said of the permits for three Tunisian doctors.
However the official did not give any information about Arafat's health.
The radio said the decision to allow the doctors to see Arafat was taken personally by Sharon, who has made several threats against the Palestinian leader's life, and by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
Arab Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi, a doctor who is close to Arafat, told Israeli radio that his health was "normal," adding: "He was struck by the flu recently but is better."
In the Gaza Strip, the main Palestinian militant group Hamas said a man accused of collaborating with Israel over the assassination of the movement's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March was killed on Saturday.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed in a statement that the man had provided Israel with information that allowed it to kill Yassin, the Hamas founder who was killed in a helicopter strike in Gaza City on March 22.
His successor as the movement's leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi, was assassinated on April 17 in a similar operation.
10/23/2004 - 13:24 GMT - AFP