JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli parliament was set for an historic vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon`s hotly contested plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip after 37 years of occupation.
The vote comes after a series of Israeli incursions and air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip that has left 17 Palestinians dead since Sunday.
Meanwhile, the health of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- long dismissed by Sharon as an obstacle to peace -- was the subject of speculation after he underwent medical tests in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Sharon, once the champion of Jewish settlers on occupied Palestinian land, made an impassioned defence of the Gaza pullout plan at the start of a stormy debate in parliament on Monday.
"I have decided to go right through to the end with this separation. I am convinced this separation will strengthen Israel," Sharon told MPs at the start of a two-day debate that will culminate in the vote at around 1800 GMT.
"It will advance us on the road to peace with our neighbours the Palestinians," he said.
Under the plan, all 8,000 Jewish settlers will leave next year from Gaza, which was captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Several hundred residents of four small Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank will also be uprooted from their homes.
The plan has been bitterly opposed by the right-wing prime minister`s former allies and the 250,000 settlers who live in the occupied territories.
According to Israeli media reports, Sharon`s plan should win the backing of 66 MPs in the 120-member Knesset -- with the help of left-wing opposition parties Labour and Yahad -- but 17 members of the prime minister`s own Likud party are expected to be among the 50 who vote against.
While Israel`s 1982 evacuation of settlements in the Sinai yielded the prize of a peace deal with Egypt, opponents of disengagement say that there are no such benefits to be reaped from leaving Gaza unilaterally.
The plan has the support of the US administration of President George W. Bush -- Israel`s closest ally -- and according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday, 65 percent of Israelis are in favour of the pullout.
If he fails to muster a resounding majority, Sharon is likely to come under renewed pressure from rivals within Likud, including Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to put the pullout plan to a referendum.
Sharon, whose plan also envisages cementing Israeli control over larger West Bank settlements, said demographic trends threatened Israel`s democratic status unless a pullout from Gaza, which is home to around 1.3 million Palestinians, was not carried out soon.
"We cannot rule forever over millions of Palestinians who are doubling in number by every generation," he said.
Sharon, keen to fend off accusations that the pullout will hand control of Gaza on a plate to armed Palestinian factions, has been trying to deliver a knock-out blow to the militant groups.
In the latest violence, a Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli helicopter raid on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, raising the toll of Palestinian fatalities in Israeli incursions to 17 since late Sunday, medical officials said.
Palestinian witnesses said Tuesday that Israeli forces had begun withdrawing from Khan Yunis. The army described the move as a "redeployment" of units.
Meanwhile, Israel said it had authorised Arafat, who has been under virtual house arrest for three years, to receive hospital treatment in Ramallah.
But one of Arafat`s doctors said that the 75-year-old leader would not require any hospital treatment, insisting he was merely suffering from a bout of flu which had been compounded by his decision to continue fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"President Arafat is only suffering from very strong flu and because he is insisting on continuing with his fast it is taking a longer time to recover," the doctor told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"There is no need for him to go to hospital. These are just Israeli rumours," he added.
Sources close to the Palestinian leader said he had undergone a gastroscopy at his headquarters that revealed nothing abnormal.
10/26/2004 - 10:47 GMT - AFP