In an episode of the Knesset Channel program "Behind the Scenes of the Disengagement Plan," Moshe (Bogi) Ya'alon, who served as the IDF Chief of Staff in the years leading up to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005, revealed that he learned of the plan from an article in a newspaper.
"As far as I'm concerned, the issue of the disengagement came up back in the summer of 2003," Ya'alon recounts. "At the time, Prime Minister Sharon asked me, surprisingly, during a working meeting, my opinion on evicting three communities in the Gaza Strip."
He said that he responded: "No way. If we withdraw unilaterally and evict three communities, we may have to invest less effort in defending the communities, but strategically, we are going back to talk of withdrawals, and that is very back for us."
Ya'alon added that only months later did he learned the details of the plan for the first time, in a public forum: "In February 2004, I read in the Haaretz newspaper: 'The Disengagement Plan.' The Disengagement Plan is presented there, and I didn't know about it, as the IDF Chief of Staff."