Palestinians must allow orderly Gaza pull-out

President Mahmoud Abbas urged the Palestinians yesterday to ensure calm for Israel's evacuation of its Gaza settlements, saying an orderly transfer of control would boost the Palestinian quest for statehood.

Addressing a special parliamentary session in Gaza, he also called on militants to abide by a ceasefire with the Jewish state and warned his people against seizing property or looting after the Israelis pull out. The withdrawal begins today week.

Mr Abbas's speech, carried live on Palestinian television, marked his sternest message yet of the Palestinian Authority's intention to prevent chaos in the Gaza Strip after Israel uproots all 8,500 settlers living in the occupied territory.

"The withdrawal must take place in calm... so that we can confirm to the world that we deserve a state and that this step is just the beginning and not the end," he told lawmakers, and also announced a long-delayed general election in January.

Israel wants Mr Abbas's security forces to keep militants reined in during the pull-out and has vowed to strike back hard if attacks are launched during the evacuation.

Condemning rocket fire against Israeli targets, Mr Abbas - facing a growing challenge from the militant Islamic group Hamas - said the "national interest" required armed groups to abide by a six-month-old truce that has often been marred by violence.

"We don't want any provocation," he said. "Let them go, let us allow them to leave."

But in a sign of difficulties Mr Abbas faces, about 200 masked, armed militants from his own Fatah movement rallied outside the Parliament session demanding an end to what they said were recent attempts by security forces to arrest their members.

Mr Abbas also urged against excessive celebration ahead of the Israeli pull-out. Just hours before, about 200 Palestinians waved flags and banners near Gaza's largest settlement, chanting "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem".

Palestinians welcome any Israeli pull-out but fear that Mr Sharon's play is a ruse to trade tiny Gaza for much of the West Bank, where the majority of Israel's 240,000 settlers live.

Laying the groundwork for Palestinian politics after the withdrawal, Mr Abbas - a moderate who took office after the death of long-time leader Yasser Arafat in November - said the much delayed parliamentary election would take place in January.

The international community has sought such a legislative ballot as a way to advance democratic reforms.

Mr Sharon has billed his plan to remove all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.

Polls show most Israelis back the pull-out, but settlers and their supporters say it rewards a Palestinian uprising and betrays Israel's claims on biblical lands.

In the latest challenge to Mr Sharon, prominent rightist lawmaker Uzi Landau said he would seek to topple the Prime Minister as head of the ruling Likud party before the next general election, due in 2006.

Mr Landau, leader of a Likud "rebel" faction that tried in vain to scuttle Mr Sharon's Gaza plan, told a news conference he would run in Likud's next party leadership election.

Factbox - How the withdrawal is meant to happen

Israel plans to evacuate settlers from Gaza and part of the West Bank starting next week, its first withdrawal from occupied territory that Palestinians want for a state.

Here is how the pull-out is to be implemented:

¤ Settlers still in their homes on Wednesday will be given 48 hours to leave or face ejection by police and troops. Officials expect many of those holding out will leave at this point.

¤ Non-residents - mainly radical Jews from the West Bank who slipped into Gaza settlements - will be removed.

¤ Evacuations of homes will start on Friday, August 17. Unarmed squads of 17 soldiers each, male and female, will go door to door asking settlers to leave.

¤ If need be, soldiers will break into homes to remove the occupants. Arrests will be a last resort.

¤ About 50,000 troops have been assigned to extract settlers or to ward off Palestinian attacks or infiltration by Jewish protesters, with six concentric rings of deployment.

¤ Soldiers are under orders not to use firearms in removing recalcitrant settlers unless their lives are put in danger.

¤ Evacuation of 8,500 settlers from all 21 Gaza enclaves will take two to three weeks. A few hundred settlers in four West Bank settlements will be removed in early September.

¤ There will be no evacuations on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

¤ Once the settlers are out, their belongings will be packed into containers by three designated moving firms.

¤ Settler homes and synagogues will then be demolished. Israel and the Palestinians have yet to agree on how to deal with the rubble.

¤ Soldiers will transfer 48 settler graves to Israel.

¤ Troops will pull out of Gaza after dismantling bases.

¤ Israel's security establishment wants the pull-out to be completed by October's Jewish High Holidays.

¤ Palestinians will be able to enter at this point and they have drawn up plans for major celebrations. Palestinian security forces will be on alert to keep order, with their primary challenge controlling militant groups and possible looters.