JERUSALEM, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Police will confiscate arms of some settlers ahead of the implementation of the disengagement plan, the Public Security Ministry said on Tuesday.

    Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that the police and the Shin Bet internal security service had information about "dangerous" settlers and there were plans to take away their weapons ahead of the pullout.

    A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the government was considering seizing the weapons of extremists among the settlers.

    Israeli police and the army are preparing for fierce and possibly violent settler opposition to a withdrawal from all Gaza and four West Bank settlements.

    Virtually all settlers are armed, carrying army-issued weapons. There has been fear that some of the more extreme settlers could open fire on security forces assigned to evacuate them.

    The settlers have said they would use only passive resistance in their struggle against the pullout.

    Police in charge of evacuating settlers will be unarmed, police said.

    Settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein said in a letter that opponents of the pullout plan must be ready to fight their lives against the evacuation.

    In the letter, Wallerstein made a radical leap from his recent call to break the law in the fight against the plan, saying "It is clear that historically we have often been forced to endanger our lives to protect the land of Israel."

    The Israeli cabinet has approved the evacuation, which would begin in July. Enditem