Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers might have to move if a peace plan fails and Israel starts unilateral measures to separate from the Palestinians, a top government official said last night.
Settlers are outraged at a plan set out by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to move some settlements for security reasons but hold onto chunks of occupied territory where Palestinians seek a state.
Underscoring more than three years of bloodshed, Palestinian medics said a six-year-old boy was shot dead during clashes between Israeli troops and stone-throwers in the West Bank city of Nablus. A top militant was arrested there earlier.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was committed to a US-backed peace "road map," but if that failed, then steps would be taken that involved moving settlers and the number would probably be "in the tens of thousands".
"I don't think I am ready to go into specific numbers but there will be a considerable number of Jewish inhabitants in the territories who will have to move and a considerable number of settlements," Mr Olmert said.
There are at least 230,000 settlers among 3.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians see the settlements as the main obstacle to a viable state, but they also oppose Israel's "Disengagement Plan" - under which Mr Sharon has said they would get less land than they might through talks.
The settlements are largely viewed as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this. Officials from both sides said more high-level discussions were due midweek to prepare the ground for a meeting between Mr Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mr Ahmed Qurie.
A meeting between the premiers is widely seen as essential for pushing forward with the road map, which is meant to give the Palestinians a state by 2005 on land that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.