JERUSALEM, Aug 5: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sleeps with a loaded handgun under his pillow because of the threat of an assassination attempt by Jewish extremists opposed to the Gaza pullout, a newspaper said on Friday.

“Although his personal security has never been tighter, Sharon likes to keep his pistol,” the Maariv daily reported. The Shin Beth internal security services have reported unspecified threats against Sharon from ultranationalist Jewish groups vehemently opposed to the evacuation of all 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip later this month.

A group of radicals held a ceremony last month to cast a death curse, known as a pulsa dinura, on Sharon as retribution for his disengagement plan. The assassination of the prime minister is perceived by the security establishment as one of the only incidents that could still derail the Gaza pullout plan.

An aide to Mr Sharon could not confirm Maariv’s information, but said that the burly former general had repeatedly eluded questions on whether he carried a weapon with a joke. A former premier, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated on Nov 4, 1995, by a Jewish extremist who wanted to torpedo the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accords. —AFP