Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday he would postpone Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip by three weeks, to mid-August, to avoid conflicting with a traditional Jewish period of mourning. With an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire in place, US-led mediators count on the pullout to help revive Middle East peace talks. But the truce has been shaky and many of the 8,500 rightist Jewish settlers in Gaza vow to resist removal. "The evacuation will be carried out in consideration of the (mourning period), that is, immediately after Tisha B'av, apparently the 15th or 16th or 17th of August," Sharon said in an excerpt of a television interview aired on Israel Radio.
Sharon had said three weeks ago he was leaning towards a delay, citing Jewish religious sensibilities during the mourning spell that marks the destruction during biblical times of two Jerusalem temples. The observance ends on August 14.
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