Sharon's party rejects his plan

The Israeli prime minister suggests that despite the vote, he will continue a pullout from the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party rejected his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in a referendum Sunday, an embarrassing defeat for Sharon.

With 90 percent of the vote counted, opponents led supporters by about 60 to 39 percent, Israel Radio reported.

Though security was intensified for the vote, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza killed a pregnant settler and her four young daughters as they headed into Israel to campaign against Sharon's plan. It was the deadliest attack on Gaza settlers in two years.

Israel hit back with a pair of airstrikes. A raid Sunday night in the West Bank city of Nablus killed four Palestinian fighters, including two local leaders of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group loyal to the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. An earlier helicopter strike damaged a Palestinian radio station in Gaza City affiliated with the Hamas faction, damaging the offices but causing only minor injuries.

His own party's rejection of Sharon's proposal for "unilateral disengagement" creates a new level of turmoil and uncertainty in Israeli domestic politics, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and the Bush administration's search for a solution to the 31/2-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- It raises questions about whether Likud - which leads the government at the head of a four-party coalition - is out of step with Israelis, who in opinion surveys have overwhelmingly supported removing settlements and troops from Gaza.

- It underscores the power of Israel's settlement lobby, which mobilized to defeat the plan advocated by the prime minister, who is considered the father of Israel's settlement expansion.

- And it could precipitate a major political crisis: a Cabinet reshuffle, a split within the party or even early elections.

The premier, who had said he considered the polling a vote of confidence in his leadership, said he respected the results but would not resign.

Sharon said he would consult with party and government officials on his next steps and suggested he would continue to push ahead with his plan.

"One thing is clear to me: The people of Israel did not want me to sit for four years with my hands folded. I was chosen to find a way to bring this nation the calm, peace and security that it so deserves," he said in a statement.

The White House said it still supports Sharon's withdrawal plan and will soon consult with the prime minister on how to move forward.

"Our own view has not changed: The president welcomed Prime Minister Sharon's plan to withdraw settlements from Gaza and a part of the West Bank as a courageous and important step toward peace," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Supporters of Sharon's "disengagement plan" argued that Sunday's violence underscored the hopeless burden of staying in Gaza. Opponents said any withdrawal would be seen as a reward for terror and encourage more attacks on Israelis.

Sharon initially said he would consider the vote among the 193,000 Likud members as binding, but in recent days appeared to back away from that.

"The meaning is not that (Sharon's proposal) is wrong," said Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, a strong supporter of the plan. "There is no alternative for the people of Israel. This move cannot be stopped.... We have to find a way."

Sharon has said his plan to evacuate Gaza's 21 settlements and four small West Bank settlements was vital - in the absence of other peace moves - to reducing the ongoing violence with the Palestinians and defusing international pressure on Israel.

"Those who vote "no' today will bring about an increase in terror," Sharon said Sunday.

Besides Washington, the European Union had welcomed Sharon's plan, which would be the first time Israel has ever uprooted settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, areas it captured during the 1967 Mideast war.

Palestinians greeted the plan with suspicion, angry that they were sidelined and worried that Israel was trying to cement its hold over much of the West Bank. Palestinians view settlements in both areas as illegal.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the vote was meaningless. "The best and most peaceful way ... is serious negotiations between the two sides," he said.

Sharon had done little campaigning until polls, which had previously shown strong support for the plan, tightened in recent days. Settlers, however, began campaigning against the attack almost immediately, plastering posters throughout the streets and making personal visits to Likud voters' homes.

Israel went on high security alert Sunday ahead of the referendum, dividing Gaza into three sections and restricting Palestinian travel.

That did not prevent the attack on the Gaza family, however, which Sharon blamed on militants trying to scuttle his proposal.

Tali Hatuel, 34 - who was eight months pregnant - and her four daughters, ages 2 to 11, were driving into Israel when gunmen fired on their white Citroen station wagon near the Kissufim crossing.

The car spun off the road and the attackers charged it, shooting the five inside at close range, Israeli police said. The wagon was riddled with bullets, its windows blown away. A bumper sticker on the car read: "Uprooting the settlements - a victory for terror."

Soldiers killed the attackers in a gunbattle at the scene. Two soldiers were wounded, the army said.

The family lived in Katif, one of 21 communities housing 7,500 Jews living amid the 1.3-million Palestinians in the narrow, 25-mile-long seaside strip.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group, claimed responsibility for what it called the "heroic" attack. They said it was retaliation for Israel's recent assassinations of Hamas founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Hours later, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at the Gaza building housing a Hamas radio station, lightly injuring seven Palestinians.

The other airstrike, in Nablus, killed four Palestinian fighters in a car, including two leaders of a group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, Palestinian security sources said. Israel said they were responsible for several terror attacks.

- Information from the Associated Press, Washington Post and New York Times was used in this report.

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