Israeli cabinet approves compensation for settlers

The legislation was approved by 13 votes to six, giving the premier a major boost ahead of a vote by MPs this week on his so-called disengagement plan.

The bill approved by the cabinet will give the government the power to issue evacuation orders to the settlers and allows for anyone who tries to either remain in Gaza or block the pullout to be jailed for up to three years.

It also lays down the terms of compensation, agreed on by Sharon's inner cabinet on September 14, which are likely to see families receive between 200,000 to 300,000 dollars in compensation.

Under the terms of disengagement, all 8,000 Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip as well as several hundred settlers from four enclaves in the northern West Bank are to be evacuated next year.

Meanwhile, two Islamic Jihad militants died in an Israeli air raid at Khan Younes in the Gaza Strip overnight, hospital officials said Sunday.

The two armed Palestinians were hit by a missile fired by a helicopter gunship or an unmanned aircraft, security officials said.

Two other members of the Jihad's armed branch were wounded in the incident, one of them seriously.

The two Palestinians, who were killed about 300 meters (yards) from the Israeli settlement of Neve Dkalim, were identified as Zyad Abu Mustafa and Sharif Ensalem, both about 20 years old.

The Israeli army confirmed the incident.

"One of our aircraft fired at armed men who were about to attack Neve Dkalim," said a spokesman without naming the type of aircraft used.

The deaths take to 4,514 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising in late September 2000, including 3,484 Palestinians and 956 Israelis.

Israeli ground forces backed up by a helicopter entered a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus early on Sunday, witnesses said.

Some 30 jeeps and armoured vehicles entered the Ein Bet Ilna camp to look for Palestinian activists, they said.

The Israeli forces imposed a curfew on the camp and were carrying out door-to-door searches.