Military

DATE=10/18/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= ISRAEL PALESTINIANS / L

NUMBER=2-319740

BYLINE= LARRY JAMES

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Israeli Troops Kill Four Palestinians Near Gaza Military Camp

INTRO: Israeli troops shot and killed four Palestinian men in separate incidents

in and around the northern Gaza Strip. VOA's Larry James reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: Israel Radio reports Israeli troops shot and killed two men who

managed to slip across the fenced and heavily guarded border from the Gaza

Strip. They were killed as they approached a collective farm in Israel's Negev

Desert. One man was shot and killed. The other died when explosives he was

carrying went off prematurely. The Palestinian militant group Hamas says it

sent the men.

Two other Palestinians were killed trying to plant an explosive device near the

Rafiah Yam Jewish settlement in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected calls from settlers

to call a referendum on his plans to dismantled all Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Mr. Sharon told leaders of the settlers that he already has a mandate for his

actions and has no intention of -- as he puts it -- capitulating to the threats of

the rabbis.

Last week. a group of leading Zionist religious leaders urged

soldiers to refuse to evacuate the settlements.

Settler leaders describe their meeting with Mr. Sharon as a disgrace and vow

to continue their opposition to the disengagement plan and Mr. Sharon, the man

who was one of the principle champions of the settler movement.

Pinhas Wallerstein describes the talks as a dialogue of the deaf and horrible

and vowed to continue the fight, with or without a referendum.

/// WALLERSTEIN ACTUALITY ///

With (a) referendum, without referendum we will do the best. He will lose the

fight.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Mr. Sharon has said Israel cannot continue to defend the enclaves indefinitely and that Israel's security depends on a total evacuation of the settlements. The settlers say Mr. Sharon is giving in to Palestinian violence and that a Gaza pullout sets a dangerous precedent.

There are an estimated 82-hundred settlers living among more than one million

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

NEB/LDJ/ WD