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Israeli troops, Gaza settlers poise for standoff

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 17:55 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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