| The government envisions Palestinian insurgency strikes on civilian and military targets during a planned effort to expel up to 10,000 Israeli from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank in 2005. Officials said the government and military forsee a coordinated effort by Palestinian insurgents, supported by the Palestinian Authority, to attack Israeli soldiers and police deployed to evacuate residents from Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. They said Palestinians could also be planning to launch mortars and rockets toward convoys of Israelis forced out of the areas. "If there will be [Palestinian] fire, Israel will have to respond in the most harsh manner," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Thursday. "We are talking of thousands of trucks, of women, men, children, equipment. We will not allow the evacuation effort to harm in any way those being evacuated." Sharon said he was intent that the expulsion of Israelis from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank begin in September 2005. But he acknowledged that Palestinian attacks would disrupt his timetable and lead to massive Israeli retaliation against insurgency strongholds in the PA areas. |