JERUSALEM, 26 July 2004 — Israeli authorities are voicing increasing fears that Jewish extremists may launch a spectacular attack in a bid to scupper the planned pullout from Gaza, including a suicide attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Senior sources quoted by the Haaretz daily yesterday said they were studying the possibility that militants, inspired by the Sept. 11 terror attacks, would try to crash an unmanned drone packed with explosives or even send a suicide bomber to crash into Muslim worshippers during a prayer session.

The latest scare story comes as tens of thousands of Israelis formed a human chain yesterday in a mass show of strength against the government’s so-called disengagement plan. Organizers were hoping for a continuous line of protesters from Nissanit settlement in the north of the Palestinian territory to the center of Jerusalem, a distance of some 90 kilometers (57 miles).

The crowds began assembling in mid-afternoon along the roads as well as in Jerusalem to symbolically link hands at around 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).

Thousands of people could be seen lining the side of Jaffa Street, Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare, many of them carrying Israeli flags and singing traditional Jewish songs.

Youngsters wearing orange t-shirts and baseball caps — the color which has come to symbolize the settlers’ campaign — were distributing leaflets proclaiming “The People are With Gush Katif”, in reference to the main settlement bloc in southern Gaza.

MPs from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party were expected to take part in the protest, the largest organized so far against the pullout plan which will also involve the evacuation of four northern West Bank settlements.

The pullout of all the Jewish residents of the 21 Gaza settlements is scheduled to be concluded by September 2005 and all troops should have left by the end of next year.

Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi warned Saturday of a high risk of an attack by Jewish extremists against Islamic holy places on the compound.

The compound shelters the Dome of the Rock (Omar Mosque) and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, as well as the Western Wall which is the holiest site for the Jews. “The risk of Jewish extremists and fanatics committing an attack against Temple Mount or the faithful in this most sacred place for Islam has never been so high,” Hanegbi said.

Such an attack would have the aim of sabotaging Prime Minister Sharon’s plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip by “provoking a chain reaction”, the minister said on Israeli television. “We have a considerable amount of disquieting information according to which it is not only academic ideas but concrete projects,” he added, without elaborating.

Authorities fear that the extremists want to trigger a violent backlash by Palestinians that would make it impossible for Sharon’s government to implement the departure from Gaza.

While officials are giving away few details of intelligence information, Hanegbi’s deputy Gideon Ezra said the risk was “very great”.

Ezra, a former number two in Israel’s domestic Shin Beth security service, said that administration detention orders were needed to combat the plans of the extreme right.

The orders date back to the time of the British mandate period but have more recently been used to detain suspected Palestinian militants without trial.

In the early 1980s, the Shin Beth busted a Jewish clandestine group that was planning a large-scale attack on Al-Aqsa in order to torpedo a peace accord with Egypt and prevent the dismantling of settlements on the Sinai Peninsula.

One of the organizers of that botched attack, Yehuda Etzion, appealed yesterday for the Al-Aqsa mosque to be destroyed in order to build a new Jewish Temple.

“I pray every day for the Temple Mount to be cleansed of the presence of Muslims for the Third Temple to be constructed,” Etzion, who was freed under a presidential amnesty, told army radio.

Etzion argued that it was “perfectly legitimate” to carry out attacks on mosques.

Yossi Melman, a specialist on internal security, said the security services were sounding the alarm bell both as a deterrent message to the extremists as well as covering their own backs in case of an attack.

“I don’t know if Shin Beth has precise information on preparations for an attack but there is every reason to fear that individuals or groups of people have decided to stop the Israeli retreat at all costs, by setting the region on fire,” Melman said.