TEL AVIV, July 24: Jewish settlers are planning to form a "human chain" on Sunday stretching some 90 kilometres from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem and called at the weekend for thousands of Israelis to take part.

The demonstration is part of a campaign by settlers against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip by the end of next year and dismantle the 21 settlements there, home to 8,000 settlers.

A spokesman for an action committee from the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the strip said on Saturday "tens of thousands of people", young and old, would join the chain.

In calls for support published in the Israeli press, the committee termed Mr Sharon's withdrawal project a "plan of destruction" for the settlements.-AFP