JERUSALEM - The Knesset committee for disengagement affairs will convene Tuesday to discuss the possibility of postponing the scheduled Gaza pullout, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday. "We must do all we can to ease the residents' suffering," Sharon said, hinting that he may vote in favor of Disengagement Administration head Yonatan Bassi's request to delay pullout until after the three-week mourning period marking the destruction of the two Temples. Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Bassi, who is religious, raised the issue at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, after "an internal struggle and talking to rabbis," Bassi's spokesman, Haim Altman, said. Altman said Bassi suggested delaying the withdrawal, as it is forbidden to move to a new house during the Tisha B'Av mourning period. While the pullout is scheduled for the end of July and set to last four weeks, evacuation would fall during the three-week mourning period marking the destruction of the two Temples. Should Bassi's proposal be approved, disengagement would begin in mid-August, three weeks after the planned date. 'Allow the settlers to mourn' Observant Jews "mourn" the destruction of the temple and don't shave, cut their hair, listen to music or get married during the "three weeks." Many eat only dairy. An official involved in the disengagement said it would not be fair to add the religious element to the settlers' expected opposition to the pullout. "They (settlers) must be allowed to mourn the destruction of the temple, which according to belief, was caused due to baseless hatred," the officials said. The IDF has allocated two months and 10 days to implement the pullout, in a bid to end disengagement by Rosh Hashana at the beginning of October. Should Bassi's proposal be approved, the pullout process would be shortened by three weeks, leaving the IDF only one and a half months to evacuate the settlements. Asaf Shariv, a top Sharon aide, said the prime minister had wanted the evacuation to be over by September 1 when children start school, but he is reconsidering after Bassi's suggestion. "We will think about it," Shariv said. Sharon has not rejected the suggestion, while he has rejected postponement requests from other political and security officials in the past, due to logistical reasons.