JERUSALEM, June 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday that he was confident his disengagement plan to pull out from Gaza would be passed by the cabinet.

    "The plan will be adopted on Sunday," Sharon told reporters after attending a closed-door session of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

    "By the end of 2005, there will be no Jew remaining in the Gaza Strip," Sharon said, adding settlers' homes and synagogues will be demolished and rebuilt in other places.

    During his speech to the committee, the prime minister also said the disengagement plan would include a Jordanian presence in the West Bank as well as greater Egyptian security involvement in the Gaza Strip when Israel has withdrawn from the area, Israel Army Radio reported.

    The disengagement plan involves a withdrawal from all 21 of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and an evacuation of four isolated settlements in the northern West Bank.

    According to a spokesman from the US Embassy to Israel, President Gorge W. Bush will only support a full Israeli plan to withdraw all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip instead of any alternatives.

    "It's that plan that President Bush endorsed in a statement as a bold initiative," said the US embassy spokesman. "It's that planthat he supports and no other."

    The US warning that it would not accept another version will give support to Sharon who is facing strong opposition within its government led by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also Sharon's main rival in Likud party.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas on Tuesday also expressed welcome to Sharon's plan.

    In a statement, Hamas said, "The Palestinian people would be delighted at any Zionist withdrawal." It added that it could suspend attacks from Gaza if Israel pulls out of the strip.

    On the ground in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops on Wednesday shot two Palestinians dead near a road connecting the Netsarim Jewish settlement and the Karni passage southeast of Gaza city.

    The two Palestinians, believed to be members of the Al-Qassam brigades, the armed-wing of Hamas, were attempting to carry out anattack against Israeli military targets in the area, said Israeli soldiers.

    On Tuesday, medical sources reported that two Palestinian boys were shot and wounded by Israeli troops near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. The move drew criticism from the United Nations, saying the Israeli forces violated the sanctity of Palestinian schools.

    "Such indifference to the sanctity of schools and the UN flags flying above them violates all humanitarian norms and is absolutely deplorable," said the UN Relief and Works Agency in a statement.

    "Israel's military must take steps to investigate this incident," it stressed. Enditem