Israel fears that half of the Jewish settlers slated for evacuation from occupied Gaza next month will stay put rather than agree to relocation, forcing troops to remove them, a cabinet minister said today.
Some 9,000 settlers are to leave Gaza and a corner of the West Bank next month under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" Israel from fighting with the Palestinians.
Although Israeli ultranationalists condemn the pullout as a betrayal of Jewish claims on biblical land and a reward for Palestinian revolt, the government has reported a hike in the number of settlers applying for relocation packages.
Opening a caravan park to provide temporary housing in southern Israel for Gaza evacuees, authorities handed keys to the red-roofed, airconditioned trailers dubbed "cara-villas" to several families due to move in later in the week.
But Housing Minister Isaac Herzog said half of the Gaza settlers were likely to stay on in the narrow, coastal territory, defiance fuelling fears of confrontations during the pullout.
"Our working assumption is that around half of the families will, on the morning of the evacuation, still have forgone (state-funded relocation)," Herzog told Army Radio. "We are doing everything for this figure to be much less."
As of last week, data furnished by the government's Disengagement Authority showed that about 750 of 1,800 families to be evacuated had applied for state funds.
Officials argue that many settlers have failed to come forward because they fear the censure of their neighbours. But some would-be evacuees accuse the government of foot-dragging.
Rachel Dahan of the northern Gaza settlement of Nisanit said her family applied for relocation in April.
"As of today, we haven't received an answer," she told Israel Radio by telephone while touring the Nitzan caravan park.
Another Nisani settler, Amos Halfon, complained the 60 square metre (645 sq ft) caravan was too small for his family of five.
"It has 2-1/2 rooms," he said. "It's all miniature."