Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has failed to end an impasse with right-wing Jewish settler leaders over his plan for limited disengagement from Gaza and the West Bank.
The settler leaders, calling yesterday's meeting with Mr Sharon "shameful," raised the threat of civil war unless he changes his course.
Mr Sharon told the settlers he understood their anguish but pledged to push forward with his plan, which he wants to put to a parliamentary vote on October 25th.
Settler leaders had hoped to persuade Mr Sharon to hold a nationwide vote on the plan, which calls for the removal of all 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip as well as four small Jewish enclaves in the northern part of the West Bank.
Mr Sharon told the settlers he was especially concerned by a recent call by an influential rabbi on Orthodox Jewish soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate the settlements. Dozens of lower-ranking rabbis have signed on to the call.
About 8,200 settlers live in Gaza among 1.3 million Palestinians- a position Mr Sharon says is untenable. He claims his plan will increase Israel 's security and will help consolidate control over large chunks of the West Bank.
Palestinians say Mr Sharon means to seize and hold West Bank land trapped behind Israel's illegal wall.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated Israel from the strip, the military said.
The gunmen, who cut through the fence that surrounds the coastal area and reached an orchard 300 yards from an Israeli community, were killed after a lengthy gunbattle, the military said.