JERUSALEM, 12 April 2004 — The ruling Likud party has set April 29 as the date for its referendum on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and four isolated West Bank settlements, officials said yesterday. Likud spokesman Shmuel Dahan said the date was adopted at a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee.

The Likud is deeply divided over the plan and approval is far from assured. If he wins, Sharon will reportedly seek Cabinet and parliamentary approval within days.

The decision on the date came a day before Sharon was to leave for Washington, where he hopes to win endorsement for his plan from President George W. Bush. The two are to meet on Wednesday at the White House.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian in the West Bank town of Akraba, near Nablus, as they arrested two others, witnesses and hospital officials said. Mohammed Abu Kaber was shot in the head as he looked out the window from a house that troops had surrounded, neighbors said.

The army said Abu Kaber was killed by “warning shots.” Soldiers arrested two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, one of them Abu Kaber’s brother, the neighbors said.

In other violence, two Palestinian youths were shot and wounded by Israeli troops after the troops opened fire on Palestinian stone throwers in a village north of the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian witnesses said.

The April 29 referendum among 200,000 Likud members is critical for Sharon. The prime minister has pledged to honor the outcome of the vote, and he could come under growing pressure to resign if he loses.

A vote of confidence from Bush would give Sharon an important boost. Sharon said yesterday that his plan would help Israel’s security, improve its standing in the international community, boost the economy and lift peace efforts.

“There is no doubt that this plan opens a way in the future for a process of peace,” he said before meeting with Israel’s ceremonial president, Moshe Katsav.

Sharon will need American support even beyond the referendum. Several senior Cabinet ministers have said they will not support Sharon without American backing. Media reports said the Cabinet might vote May 2, to be followed a day later by Parliament. The extent of US support for the plan remained unclear.