JERUSALEM, 14 June 2004 — The Jewish settlers of Gaza were mapping out a strategy to thwart the uprooting of their homes yesterday, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed his withdrawal plan would be completed within 18 months.

A week after they approved his disengagement plan, Sharon told ministers at the regular Cabinet meeting that he had ordered the committees tasked with its implementation to begin work “without delay so that we can meet the deadline for each stage of the withdrawal by the end of 2005”.

Sharon’s Cabinet voted 14 to seven on June 6 in favor of his plan, which will see all 7,500 Gaza settlers cleared from the Palestinian territory as well as the closure of four settlements in the northern West Bank. In turn, Sharon wants to strengthen Israeli control over other large West Bank settlements.

A senior government official involved with the pullout said yesterday the settlers should have left the Gaza Strip by September 2005 and then the remaining troops and military hardware would be removed.

“The civilian evacuation must be completed by Sept. 5 after which the military evacuation will take place,” he told reporters.

Settlers are likely to receive an average 300,000 dollars per family if they leave voluntarily by the end of next summer, after which time troops will be sent in to clear out those who have stayed put.

Many are determined to cling on to their homes and were to hold a meeting later yesterday in the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim to map out their plan of attack.

“We are not going to allow ourselves to be destroyed,” a spokesman for the settlers said. “We will knock on every door throughout Israel to plead our case. We are not despairing and we are keeping our faith.”

Sharon has received pledges of support from both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in recent days to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan.

In a phone call on Friday, Sharon and Annan agreed “to cooperate closely” over the pullout, the prime minister’s office said.

“UN Secretary-General Annan added that the international community was prepared to render assistance and contribute both efforts and resources in order to assure a successful implementation of the disengagement plan.”

Annan had described the prospect of a withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank settlements as “a significant and courageous step that could potentially move the region forward”, the statement added.

Solana also spoke with Sharon by telephone last Wednesday to offer the EU’s help in implementing the withdrawal plan.

The United States has likewise given its firm support for the disengagement plan, but Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom warned cabinet that the Bush administration was losing patience with the government’s failure to remove unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank.

The government is obliged to remove all outposts erected since Sharon came to power in 2001 under the terms of the internationally-backed “road-map” peace plan.

But more have been erected than dismantled since the blueprint was endorsed last summer, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now.

In events on the ground, Palestinian sources said that Israeli troops had tried yesterday to kill a top leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank town of Jenin.

Witnesses and Palestinian security sources said that around 30 Israeli jeeps and tanks entered the town and surrounded the home of Zakaria Zubeidi, one of the most wanted of all Palestinian militant leaders.

Lengthy exchanges of fire were heard around Zubeidi’s home in the town’s refugee camp and one of his assistants was wounded in the hand.

An army spokeswoman said only that troops had been involved in an exchange of fire in the area while on a “routine patrol”.