NITZANIM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave the green light Tuesday to the Housing Ministry to start building homes for Gaza settlers scheduled to be evacuated in the framework of the planned pullout in the summer.
Sharon told officials during a tour of the western Negev and the Ashkelon coastline that “We need to work quickly. There’s not a moment to waste. Go full steam ahead.”
Housing Minister Isaac Herzog and Disengagement Authority head Yonatan Bassi joined Sharon on the secret tour of the Yavul, Carmiya, Miflasim and Nitzan communities.
Tour of the towns
Herzog said that hundreds of settler families were interested in moving to the Niztanim area, north of Ashkelon.
“When things start getting serious, we will bring caravans as temporary housing here,” Herzog said.
Herzog told Sharon that the area is attractive to developers, so the evacuees would have to be quick on deciding whether they wish to move there.
Sharon also surveyed the Niztanim cemetery in Nitzan. The kibbutz was given 12 dunams by the government, in order to expand the cemetery, thus allowing Gush Katif settlers an alternative to reburying their dead.
While Sharon refused to meet with a local Nitzan representative of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Interior Minister Ophir Pines is scheduled to visit the protected dunes of Nitzanim Friday with local council head Shimon Cohen.
Mofaz in Gaza
Meanwhile, Defense Shaul Mofaz visited settlements in northern Gaza and met with residents, who expressed fears about the impending disengagement.
Mofaz told them the government would contact those who have loved ones buried in the area to discuss disinterring arrangements.
-- Diane Bahur-Nir, Hanan Greenberg, Ronny Sofer, Shmulik Hadad contributed to this article.