Israel threatened today to demolish Jewish settler homes during a planned Gaza pullout unless it can work out a deal for handing them over to Palestinian refugees via an international agency.
Israel hopes to avoid a scorched-earth policy when it evacuates Gaza settlements under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial "disengagement" initiative, which won US support this week, according to a copy of the plan.
But the Israeli government signalled that a key demand would have to be met for it to leave settlement buildings intact, as UN officials have urged.
"We want the houses to go to refugees, and if they don't we reserve the right to destroy them," a senior official said. He said Israel wanted to arrange the handover of settler homes through an international organisation, possibly the World Bank. Palestinian officials have not said what they would want to do with housing left by the settlers.
The official plan leaked to the media today showed Israel also wants an independent assessment of the value of the "real estate assets" it would leave behind and that it might seek reimbursement.
Mr Sharon's plan calls for evacuating some 20 Gaza settlements inhabited by 7,500 settlers. Gaza is home to 1.3 million Palestinians, many of them impoverished refugees and their descendants displaced during the war that led to Israel's creation in 1948.
The Israeli demand for international involvement in transferring settlement housing to refugees appeared to be part of Mr Sharon's effort to freeze the Palestinian Authority out of implementation of his plan. He has vowed to carry out the withdrawal initiative unilaterally, saying Israel has no peace partner to deal with.
Palestinian officials have called on Mr Sharon to co-ordinate any Gaza pullout with them. They have denounced US President George W. Bush's endorsement of Mr Sharon's approach, including what they see as Washington's acceptance of Israel's effective annexation of parts of the West Bank and denial of refugees' claim to a right of return to what is now the Jewish state.