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Israeli and Palestinian forces deploy to ease Gaza pullout

Posted on: Sunday, 14 August 2005, 10:12 CDT

By Jonathan Saul

GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian forces deployed on Sunday to ensure calm in the final countdown to Israel's evacuation of Jewish settlements in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Israeli police blocked approaches to Gaza to keep back Jewish protesters sworn to stopping the first removal of settlements this week from land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want for a state.

The threat of disruptions to the pullout has grown with a recent influx of some 4,000 ultranationalist Jews into Gaza settlements to reinforce hardliners among the 8,500 inhabitants vowing to resist evacuation.

"We are on our highest alert," Israeli police commissioner Moshe Karadi said as roadblocks sprouted across southwest Israel to prevent more pullout foes slipping into the Gush Katif settlements or swamping exit routes inside Israel.

"At this point people can leave but no one can enter," said army spokeswoman Miri Regev.

Settlers refusing to leave have decided to lock entry gates of their enclaves to army officers due to come on Monday to urge inhabitants to go voluntarily or be ejected by squads of unarmed troops starting on Wednesday, Israeli media said.

By rare agreement with Israel, 7,500 Palestinian security men in Gaza began moving into position on the outskirts of the fortified settlements to ward off possible efforts by Palestinian militants to shoot at departing settlers.

The security men, expected to station themselves as close as 150 meters (500 feet) from Israeli troops, would also prevent Palestinians charging into empty settlements to seize property.

Wearing military fatigues and red caps and waving Palestinian national flags, the security forces brought mattresses and tents to pitch in their positions.

The "Disengagement Plan" gets rolling at midnight (2100 GMT) on Sunday when border crossings to settlements will be sealed.

On Monday, thousands of officers are to spread out through all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank, informing inhabitants they have 48 hours to go on their own.

Gaza settler council chairman Avner Shimoni declined to confirm enclave gates would be shut but told Israel Radio: "We definitely won't make it easy for those coming to expel us.

"If you ask me, 50 to 60 percent of us will remain and the rest will leave (before Wednesday)."

MODERATE OUTFLOW OF SETTLERS

There was a moderate flow of settlers departing Gush Katif on Sunday as vehicles pulling trailers piled with suitcases, mattresses and chairs passed the Kissufim crossing into Israel.

Polls show most Israelis favor Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's move to jettison Gaza and a bit of the West Bank to help defuse conflict with Palestinians in revolt.

Major General Dan Harel, Israeli commander for the Gaza theater, said up to 4,000 opponents of the pullout had got into the enclaves by overstaying visitor permits, hiding in car trunks or using other false pretences to outwit border controls.

"They won't prevent the army and police from carrying out the decisions of the cabinet and parliament. They will make it more colorful, I hope not more violent," Harel said.

He said he hoped half the Gaza settlers would depart before Wednesday. Israel, which has devoted some 50,000 troops and police to the pullout, aims to have the settlers out by September 4.

National Home, the radical Jewish group spearheading resistance in support of hardline settlers, called on supporters to block Gaza access roads with their bodies or cars.

It urged settlers to prepare for soldiers reaching their houses by barricading doors and windows and tying themselves to furniture and fences. If hustled into evacuation buses, settlers "should fight to get off, even through windows."

Israeli military correspondents said the army was concerned about its failure to seal Gaza against "infiltrators."

U.S.-led mediators hope the pullout will foster a "road map" process toward a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

Palestinians welcome "disengagement." But they fear Sharon devised the move primarily as a smokescreen to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank where 230,000 settlers live, denying Palestinians a state of viable size.

Some 2.4 million Palestinians live in the West Bank while 1.4 million are crammed into tiny coastal Gaza.

The World Court describes the Israeli settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.

Source: REUTERS

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