Likud votes down Gaza withdrawal

Opponents of the Sharon plan have roundly defeated its supporters

Exit polls in Israel indicate that the governing Likud party has soundly rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull out from the Gaza strip.

The result, casting the country into political turmoil, came at the end of another day of violence.

First a pregnant Jewish woman and her daughters were killed by gunmen in Gaza.

Israeli forces then fired missiles into Gaza City and, in a separate attack, killed four Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Nablus.

We never thought we would achieve such a gap Settlers' leader Benzi Lieberman

The exit polls show that about 60% of the Likud party voted against Mr Sharon's proposals, while only 40% backed them. The turnout was reported to be as low as 35%.

Correspondents say the future of Mr Sharon's plan for "unilateral disengagement" - which calls for Israeli troops and 7,500 Jewish settlers to leave the Gaza Strip - is now in doubt.

The BBC's David Chazan in Tel Aviv says the prime minister may still submit the plan to the cabinet and to parliament.

However he says Mr Sharon will need great skill to hold on to the leadership of his party, and of the country.

Radio station targeted

The attack on the Jewish woman, Tali Hatuel, and her four daughters aged between two and 11, was the worst on Gaza settlers for two years.

According to one report, Mrs Hatuel, who was eight months pregnant, was driving into Israel to campaign against the Sharon plan when her car was ambushed near the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Gush Katif.

A bumper sticker on her car said: "From here, we will not move."

Likud votes on Gaza plan

The militant Islamic Jihad and Popular Committees said the attack was retaliation for Israel's recent assassination of the founder of the militant group, Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Both gunmen are said to have been killed following the attack.

The air strike on Gaza City later in the day was targeted at radio stations linked to Hamas and Yasser Arafat's Fatah organisation.

Missiles fired from helicopters damaged part of a 12-storey building filled with apartments and businesses, but no-one was killed.

Later however four militants of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in an air strike on a car in Nablus.

An F-16 fighter plane was seen overhead at the time.

'Terrible day'

The Palestinian Authority, which believes Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza will lead him to harden his position on the West Bank, responded to the Likud vote by saying that the party had no right to decide on Palestinians' fate.

Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, head of the centrist Shinui Party, also said that Likud would not determine the fate of the nation and demanded the issue be discussed in cabinet.

Likud minister Tzipi Livni told Israeli television that the result was "not good for the country and a terrible day for the party".

However, settlers' leader Benzi Lieberman said the result looked like "a watershed in Israeli politics".

He added: "We never thought we would achieve such a gap."