JERUSALEM, 9 June 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government was plunged into fresh turmoil yesterday when the leader of one of his coalition partners quit the Cabinet in protest at Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan.

“The Cabinet decision (to approve the Gaza pullout) offers Hamas a terrorist state on a plate, at the expense of the blood of Jews,” Housing Minister Effi Eitam charged in his letter to Sharon.

A party colleague, junior minister Yitzhak Levy, also submitted his resignation in protest at the Cabinet’s decision on Sunday to approve Sharon’s so-called disengagement plan. “The flag of the land of Israel has been lowered to half-mast in your days,” Levy, who was not a member of the Cabinet, wrote in his resignation letter.

But another of the NRP’s six deputies, Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev, has decided to remain in the Cabinet. Orlev was reported to be furious at his colleagues’ decision and had urged them to reconsider.

Public radio said that despite Eitam and Levy’s exit from the government, the party would continue to support Sharon’s coalition in Parliament.

Their departure comes just days after Sharon sacked two members of another party which supports Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, the National Union, on Friday.

While their dismissal ensured him a victory in the Cabinet on Sunday, that left him with the theoretical support of just 62 of the 120 deputies in the Knesset even before Eitam and Levy’s resignations.

While the Gaza pullout plan has infuriated hard-liners in his current Cabinet, Sharon’s agreement to delay any evacuations until next year has also angered the Palestinians. Veteran leader Yasser Arafat accused Israel yesterday of stalling as he backed an Egyptian initiative designed to break the peace process deadlock.

“As you can see we have accepted what was offered by our brothers in Egypt but they (the Israelis) declared that they will return to vote on every step and that they will start the first step next year,” Arafat told reporters.

Egypt has proposed a cease-fire on all sides and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in order to kickstart the process.