Israel and the Palestinians have been observing an informal cease-fire, and Israel hopes the calm will last at least until the pullout is complete. But the truce has grown increasingly strained in recent days after the deaths of four Palestinians in a series of clashes with Israeli troops.
In the latest threat to the truce, a 21-year-old Palestinian gunman infiltrated the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights yesterday from a refugee camp in Syria, but was captured by troops. Military officials said the man -- an operative with the ruling Palestinian Fatah party -- planned to kidnap an Israeli officer and take him to Syria.
Colonel Nizar Faress, the Israeli district military commander, said the army held Syria responsible for the incident. But he and other officials stopped short of accusing Syria of direct involvement.
Israeli officials accuse Syria of backing Palestinian militants in the West Bank, but the border has been largely quiet for decades. Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East War and subsequently annexed it.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants tried to plant a bomb near the Kissufim crossing in Gaza, but it went off prematurely, the army said. Troops uncovered and defused a second bomb near the Israeli border. There were no injuries in either incident, it said.
The Gaza pullout, set to begin in three months, is emerging as a formidable task. Israeli officials must deal with the logistics of uprooting more than 9,000 settlers and finding them new homes.
Defense planners are preparing for the possibility of attacks by Palestinian militants, while also trying to fend off potential violence by settlers or other opponents of the withdrawal.
Fearing violence, the Defense Ministry said Thursday it would order Gaza settlers to turn in their weapons ahead of the pullout, set to begin in late July. Earlier this week, the army issued a similar order for residents of the West Bank settlements slated for evacuation.
Avner Shimoni, mayor of the Gaza settlements, said yesterday that he favored complying with the Defense Ministry's order.
''We won't use these weapons to shoot, and if we have to return them we'll return them," he told Army Radio. ''The weapons were given to us for self-defense only. I, at least, and my friends will turn in these arms." But Eran Sternberg, a spokesman for Gaza settlers, said residents would not turn over their arms, a sign of divisions within the movement as the pullout approaches.
Opponents of the handover said the weapons are needed for protection from the Palestinians.
''It is unthinkable that any of the settlers would think of using weapons against the security forces," said the Yesha council, an umbrella group representing settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. ''The settlers hold private or any weapons given to them by law, for self-defense against the Palestinian enemy." Settler leaders say all resistance to the plan will be nonviolent, and more settlers have indicated in recent days they will cooperate with the pullout.
