JERUSALEM - Israeli police are to beef up their intelligence in a bid to counter the increasingly virulent tactics by extremists opposed to the pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip, police said Thursday.
Around 50 intelligence officers are to be posted to police stations across the country with orders to gather information on "illegal preparations" by protestors such as blocking roads.
Police will also mobilise hundreds of reservist border guardsmen to fill in for the thousands of police who will take part in the evacuation of the 21 Gaza settlements which is due to start in late July.
With the Gaza pullout plan having passed every parliamentary hurdle, its opponents have been resorting to increasingly radical measures to derail it.
Protestors recently brought the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway to a standstill by placing burning tyres on the road and there have been calls for a mass campaign of civil disobedience.
The Israeli authorities also fear that extremists could try and disrupt the pullout by staging an attack on the disputed mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims.
The Israeli police have announced that they will close access to the compound to all non-Muslims on Sunday to block an attempted demonstration by extreme rightists, a spokesman said.
A small group called Revava (Myriad) called the demonstration to oppose the Gaza pullout, timing it to coincide with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's departure to the United States for a summit with President George W. Bush which will be dominated by the plan.
The head of Revava, Israel Cohen, told army radio that he had no intention of resorting to the force to gain entry into the compound which is revered by Jews as it was once the site of the Jewish temple, the holiest shrine in Judaism, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
"If we are prevented from exercising our right to pray we will protest in the area to denounce this violation of our religious freedom but we will not use violence," Cohen said.
The ongoing Palestinian uprising was triggered by a visit to the compound, which houses the Dome of the Rock (Omar Mosque) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, by the then opposition leader Sharon.
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