Israel's parliament voted today against delaying a withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip, squashing the last political attempt by Jewish settlers to stall the plan before evacuations start next month.
The defeat by a wide margin, though widely expected, dealt another blow to rightists whose hopes of reinforcing Gaza settlements with thousands of pullout opponents have been blocked by security forces in the desert outside the strip.
But the vote again showed up the polarisation of the Jewish state over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for "disengaging" from conflict with the Palestinians by giving up Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank.
Mr Sharon had already delayed the start date by three weeks to avoid a Jewish mourning period. Israeli opponents had hoped a longer delay it might allow time to derail the plan completely.
Most Israelis support the withdrawal of the 8,500 Gaza settlers and a few hundred of the more than 230,000 in the West Bank, but opponents do not want to give up any land captured in the 1967 war and which they see as God's gift.
Palestinians welcome a withdrawal from any land, but point to the fact that Israel is strengthening its hold on settlements in the West Bank where they also want a state.
Camped in desert heat at a village near the Gaza Strip, thousands of protesters, mostly religious, said the defeat in parliament made no difference to their campaign to march to the main settlement bloc of Gush Katif and hamper the withdrawal.
They said they would try to set off at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). To stop any possible breakout, police set coils of razor wire around the three-day-old encampment at Kfar Maimon that has become a symbol of settler resistance.
Keen to see the pullout go smoothly, Washington hopes the first withdrawal from land Palestinians want for a state will spur stalled negotiations on a "road map" for peace. The prospect of Israel's pullout has also fed internal division on the Palestinian side.
At least five fighters were hurt in clashes between President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas Islamic militants hours after a deal to end the worst infighting in years. Officials quickly intervened.
Mr Abbas is under pressure from Israel and the United States to stop all militant attacks - by force if necessary - and ensure a smooth pullout from Gaza.
Islamic militants, who hail the withdrawal as a victory for their uprising and seek to win a share of power from Mr Abbas, have said they will follow a de facto truce but also respond to Israeli raids.