Israeli troops, Gaza settlers poise for standoff

By Mark Heinrich

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Israeli troops
prepared to oust hundreds of young radical Jews from a Gaza
synagogue on Thursday, one of the biggest obstacles so far to
the end of Israel’s 38-year Gaza occupation.

After two false starts on Wednesday that triggered an
eyeball-to-eyeball standoff on the building’s front lawn, the
soldiers had plans to try to negotiate one last time early on
Thursday and then sweep in and flush out the rowdy throng.

Troops dragged out Gaza settlers screaming and sobbing,
including in Neve Dekalim, the biggest enclave, on Wednesday,
the first day of forcible removals under Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s plan to disengage from Palestinians in Gaza.

Soldiers, sometimes teary eyed, hugged more compliant
settlers as they escorted them away.

Soldiers and special police removed nearly all hardline
residents from Neve Dekalim and completely emptied six of the
21 Gaza settlements, often by breaking down doors and bodily
carrying diehard inhabitants into waiting evacuation buses.

Officials said residents of two of the four West Bank
settlements slated for pullout had already left by themselves.

Hundreds of young squatters, often from radical West Bank
settlements, filled Neve Dekalim’s synagogue to reinforce the
resistance of Gaza settlers to evacuation.

While welcoming any outside assistance they could get for
opposing the pullout, the residents have often objected to the
violent and aggressive behavior of the youths.

“Even if this is the end now, this experience has made us
stronger and drawn the lines for the next round in Samaria (the
northern West Bank),” said Nitta, a 19-year-old
ultranationalist youth from Beit El in the West Bank.

WAITING, PRAYING

After dark, large numbers of police vehicles waited on the
main road outside the entrance to the settlement. Teenagers
lounged on the lawn in front of the synagogue, enjoying a warm,
muggy evening, while prayers were taking place inside.

“The hundreds of youngsters in the synagogue will be dealt
with tomorrow morning,” an Israeli army spokesman said late on
Wednesday. “If we need to, we will forcibly evacuate them. We
will have a last effort at negotiations before forcible
evacuation but our aim is to do this tomorrow. We don’t want to
lose momentum.”

With emotions at fever pitch in Gaza, a Jewish settler
grabbed a gun from a security guard and killed four Palestinian
labourers in a West Bank settlement on Wednesday.

The assailant, a driver, was taking Palestinian workers to
jobs in the Shiloh settlement when he forced a security guard
at knifepoint to hand over his gun and turned it on the
occupants of his car, police said. The gunman was later
arrested.

There was no immediate word on the motive. Nearly two weeks
ago, a religious army deserter trying to disrupt the pullout
shot dead four Israeli Arabs aboard a bus in northern Israel.

The West Bank attack drew calls for revenge by militants
from both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.

Early on Thursday, Palestinian militants fired two mortar
bombs at the Gadid Jewish settlement in south Gaza but caused
no casualties or damage, the Israeli army said.

Israel has vowed not to allow Palestinian gunmen to disrupt
the pullout. About 7,500 Palestinians have deployed near Jewish
enclaves to stop militants.

A 60-year-old West Bank settler woman opposed to the
pullout set herself on fire at a checkpoint outside the Gaza
Strip, suffering burns over 60 percent of her body.

Ultranationalist Israelis see the West Bank and Gaza Strip
as land bequeathed to the Jews by God.

The operation, the culmination of Sharon’s plan for the
first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a
state, began after a deadline at midnight on Tuesday for the
remaining Gaza settlers to leave or face eviction.

Officials said by late afternoon on Wednesday more than 60
percent of Gaza’s 8,500 residents had left or been evicted and
evacuation was going faster than expected and could be over in
two days. More than 50,000 police and soldiers were deployed in
Israel’s largest military operation other than in wartime.