Israel OKs Arafat Sick Call

Israel will allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to leave his compound to receive medical treatment in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli media reported Monday.

The decision would permit Arafat to leave his compound in the city for the first time in 2½ years.

Arafat would be allowed to leave his compound for medical checks in a Ramallah hospital on condition that he returns afterward, the officials said. The decision was made in conjunction with the army chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet security service.

Palestinian officials said Arafat, who had been suffering from the flu recently, was unlikely to take up the offer because he is recovering and has a medical clinic in his compound. However, Israeli media said the defense ministry arrived at its decision after receiving a request from Palestinian officials.

Arafat has not left his compound since 2002. Israel would only allow Arafat to get treatment inside Ramallah, according to the reports.

Also Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked parliament to approve his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, saying it will help peace efforts, while Israeli troops raided a Gaza refugee camp to halt mortar fire, killing 14 Palestinians and wounding 72.

Opening a two-day debate, Sharon told the Knesset he was determined to press ahead with his plan despite the difficulties it will cause for the country. In a speech repeatedly interrupted by heckling, the former settler patron asked lawmakers to support his "unilateral disengagement" plan to help Israelis live in peace after four years of fighting with the Palestinians.

"The disengagement plan does not come in place of negotiations," Sharon said. "It is a necessary step during a period in which negotiations are not possible. All is open when terror — this murderous terror — stops."

Sharon is expected to win Tuesday's vote, but will need a respectable margin of victory to silence increasingly vociferous opponents demanding a national referendum on the Gaza withdrawal. Sharon opposes a referendum, which would take months to prepare, as a stalling tactic.

Hours before the debate started, Israeli troops raided the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza to halt Palestinian mortar fire. Violence in Gaza has increased in the months since Sharon announced his plan, with Palestinian militants trying to prove they are forcing Israel out, and Israel trying to crush the militants to show it is not withdrawing under fire.

Palestinians view the plan with skepticism and worry Sharon will use the withdrawal to blunt international criticism and strengthen Israel's hold over large parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians claim for a state that contain far more settlers than live in Gaza.

Sharon says his plan is necessary to boost Israel's security after four years of fighting. He says the pullout, combined with a West Bank barrier under construction, would enable Israel to strengthen its hold on large settlement blocs in the West Bank.

"We have to do this, despite all the suffering involved," Sharon said. "This will decrease hostility, and will lead us forward on the path to peace with the Palestinians."

Jewish settlers accuse Sharon of caving in to Palestinian violence and fear the withdrawal will be the first step in a larger pullback.

The disengagement plan would mark the first time Israel pulls down Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza since capturing those territories in 1967. Settlements on occupied territory are contrary to international law.

Reaching beyond parliament, Sharon appealed Monday for support from the Israeli public, which polls show strongly support his plan.

"I call on the people of Israel to unite in this fateful moment, to allow us … to erect a dam against the hatred among us," he said.

Sharon said he made the decision with a heavy heart.

"During my life as a fighter, as a commander, as a politician, as a member of parliament, as a minister in Israeli governments, and as the prime minister I have never known anything so difficult," he said.

The program is a sharp reversal for the premier, once the settlers' top patron in the government.

The plan has sharply divided Sharon's own hard-line Likud Party, with nearly half its 40 lawmakers saying they will vote against it. Sharon will need to rely on the support of dovish opposition parties.

Regardless, Sharon's allies say he should get at least 65 votes — and possibly as many as 70 — in the 120-member Knesset.

A victory Tuesday does not ensure that Sharon's plan will be adopted. Parliament and the Cabinet will have to vote at least once more — and perhaps several more times — to approve actual evacuations, and Sharon's government could fall on other issues, including the budget, before the plan is implemented.

On Sunday, Israel's Cabinet approved a key element of Sharon's plan, a bill detailing compensation for the 8,800 settlers in Gaza and four West Bank communities who would be removed from their homes.

Settler families would be paid $200,000-$350,000 in compensation. Sharon hopes settlers will accept cash advances — which could total up to one-third of the final compensation payout to leave well ahead of the official evacuation, heading off confrontations between settlers and troops.

The Cabinet also approved penalties, including prison terms, for those resisting. The guidelines will be turned into a bill and sent to parliament.

Overnight, scores of Israeli armored vehicles moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza in an operation the army said was sparked by recent mortar attacks on nearby Israeli settlements.

The raid, punctuated by repeated airstrikes and the firing of tank shells, killed 14 Palestinians and wounded 72, doctors said. Among the dead were three members of the Palestinian security forces, two gunmen and an 11-year-old boy. Seventeen of the wounded were under the age of 18.

Two Israelis soldiers were wounded when Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at their armored personnel carrier, the army said.

The army said it demolished the home of a local Hamas leader who was responsible for attacks that killed eight Israelis.