In a sign that resistance against plans for their evacuation is crumbling, leaders of the Jewish settlers in Gaza have begun negotiating a deal with the government that would allow them to move en masse to a new coastal community inside Israel.

Representatives of the 8,500 Gaza settlers have met the Prime Minister Sharon, who is expected to approve the idea of moving this Sunday to Nitzanim, a nature preserve of sand dunes located five miles north of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

In exchange, Mr. Sharon will apparently insist that the settlers play by the “rules of the game” for the evacuation of Gush Katif and leave quietly, without any resistance.

This development has coincided with confirmation that the first compensation payments to uprooted settlers have gone out, after months of delays, as the government and military plans for evacuation move forward.

The news that most of the settlers might be prepared to strike a deal will please Mr. Sharon. His plan to withdraw from all of the Gaza Strip and four isolated West Bank settlements has provoked strident denunciations from settlers who have vowed to resist the plan.

But since the Israeli leader won final parliamentary approval for his plan last month, several senior leaders have privately admitted that their fate has been sealed.

The decision to try to move to Nitzanim came after a stormy five hour session of the Gaza Strip Regional Council during which settlers authorized a team of 100 lawyers and assessors to negotiate about moving as a group.

According to the Nitzanim plan, the settlers would be relocated to four settlements – in an existing community called Nitzan, which would be expanded from 100 to 650 families, and in three new settlements northeast of Ashkelon.

There are 1,780 houses planned for the new district, enough for 8,500 residents, but government officials say that a maximum of 1,400 new houses will be built in the area.

Meanwhile some settlers have already received 75% of their total compensation, with the remainder to be paid after they leave their homes. A few families have indicated they will move at the end of the school year in June, weeks before the withdrawal is scheduled to begin.

Some settlers still say they will oppose the move and opposition from more ideologically hardline settlers is expected. In recent weeks, a group of opponents, many from West Bank settlements, have blocked rush-hour traffic by burning tires on main roads and chained shut 167 Tel Aviv-area schools in a sign that the disengagement plan is unlikely to pass off peacefully.

The defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, told the army yesterday to work out a plan to disarm settlers in order to avoid casualties. If everything goes to plan, the soldiers will carry out the evacuation unarmed.

Pinhas Wallerstein, a settler leader at the West Bank, where many of the most uncompromising settlements are located, said: “Rather than declaring war on terror, the defense minister, who is responsible for the security of the state of Israel, is rewarding terror. He isn’t taking the militants’ weapons. The only thing he’s doing is taking Israel’s pioneers and marking them as enemies of the state of Israel.”