Knesset rejects Gaza referendum bill

A majority of MPs in the Knesset voted against the bill drawn up by opponents of plans to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza as well as four outposts in the northern West Bank, due to begin on July 20.

Earlier Israeli forces raided the Palestinian city of Jenin yesterday, arresting eight militants Israeli security sources said were involved in making crude rockets and mortars for attacks against Israeli towns. The raid was a rare invasion into a West Bank city by the Israeli military since the army said it would carry out only essential operations after Israel and the Palestinian Authority declared a de facto truce in February.

An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded by an explosive device during the operation in which five Islamic Jihad militants were arrested in Jenin and three in a nearby village.

Israeli forces located a workshop last month on the outskirts of Jenin where they found components for crude rockets capable of being fired at the nearby Israeli city of Afula.

Israeli media said the militants arrested early Monday were connected to the cell that had produced the rocket parts, adding the militants were trying to produce munitions similar to the Qassam rockets that militants in Gaza have regularly fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reiterated that Israel will keep its largest settlements in the occupied West Bank with US blessing under any permanent solution to the Middle East conflict.

"Large Israeli settlement blocs will remain in Israeli hands in any future settlement with the Palestinians," Sharon told his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, according to a statement published by his office.