JERUSALEM, 4 November 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, weakened by a party rebellion over his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, postponed yesterday’s planned vote on the 2005 state budget, the head of his Likud faction said.
Gideon Saar did not give any date for the vote, saying it would be held when Sharon was sure of a majority.
“The budget will be brought to a vote as soon as possible,” Saar told reporters.
Financial markets would see a long postponement as a blow to Israel’s economic credibility and fear that the government will whittle away spending cuts in order to get the budget through, upsetting international credit rating agencies.
Sharon had been unsure of winning the vote because rebels in his rightwing Likud party, who oppose his plan to give up some land claimed by Palestinians, threatened to side with opponents of the budget.
Sharon won support from opposition Labour for his plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank next year, but the center-left party would not support the budget spending cuts.
The Knesset approved the first reading of a compensation bill for Jewish settlers who will be forced to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank under the plan.
Deputies voted 64-44 in favor of the project, which also envisages a strengthening of Israeli control over larger West Bank settlement blocs. There were nine abstentions.
Two Palestinians were shot dead and four Israeli soldiers wounded in a flare-up in the southern Gaza Strip and the West Bank yesterday, sources on both sides said.
Raafat Al-Hams, 26, died after being shot in the head by troops operating in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza while the other was a Palestinian man killed near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Further north, two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded when an anti-tank missile fired by Palestinians hit an army base near Neve Dekalim in the Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif, an army spokeswoman said.
An Israeli civilian in the area was also treated for shock, she added.
Military sources had earlier said three people were injured in the strike.
The army also said two Israeli soldiers were wounded by Palestinian sniper fire aimed at the Jewish settlement of
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
