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Army enters last Gaza settlement
Israeli forces are evacuating the last inhabited Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip as an eviction operation started five days ago draws to a close.
Netzarim's residents are the last of 8,500 people in 21 settlements in Gaza to be evicted under a pullout plan.
Netzarim's residents are the last of 8,500 people in 21 settlements in Gaza to be evicted under a pullout plan.
Attention will then shift to the West Bank, where four other settlements are being abandoned amid expectations of possibly violent resistance.
Troops are heading to the West Bank for the operation, due to start on Tuesday.
Residents of two West Bank settlements due to be evacuated have already left, but an estimated 2,000 activists have gathered at two others - Sanur and Homesh - and are expected to mount fierce resistance.
Skirmishes were reported on Sunday as tensions rose ahead of the operation.
Military officials believe some of the protesters have weapons and may be ready to use them, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Former Israeli intelligence chief Ami Ayalon told Israeli television that about 8% of the 230,000 settlers in the West Bank should be considered dangerous, and did not recognise the state's authority.
"They have no limits, and will do everything they can, including the use of violence," said Mr Ayalon.
The military says armed troops may be deployed to clear the two settlements, a shift from the policy in Gaza where all troops were unarmed.
'Painful situation'
Netzarim was one of the first settlements to be erected in Gaza.
The Israeli army has often blocked approach roads to the isolated settlement, which has been attacked many times by Palestinian militants.
According to the AFP news agency, some 2,000 Israeli security personnel are helping clear Netzarim.
An officer in charge of the operation told the agency he expected all settlers to have left by the afternoon, following a final mourning ceremony.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the withdrawal plan, earlier visited some of the troops involved in the emotional clearances from Gaza.
"You have carried out this operation, which has been very difficult for you and the residents, in a way that demands respect and I thank you," Mr Sharon told soldiers at the Ein Hashlosha base.
"No state in the world can be as proud of having mobilised such a force in such difficult conditions."
Many of the soldiers had prayed and wept with the settlers as they moved them out.
Mr Sharon also praised the way settlers had dealt with the operation, in what he called a "very difficult and painful situation".
Homes demolished
Israeli bulldozers began demolishing homes in four of the empty Gaza settlements on Sunday - at Nissanit and Dugit in the north, and Peat Sadeh and Ganei Tal in the south.
Bulldozers and excavators ripped through the red-tiled roofs and white-washed walls of the homes, the BBC's Jim Fish reports.
The demolition work - expected to take several weeks - is being carried out in agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which will assume responsibility for the land once the Israeli army has left.
The final departure of troops is expected within about a month, once army bases and military installations have been dismantled.
The Palestinian Authority is expected to use much of the land to build new housing for Gaza's overcrowded population.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4171982.stm
Israeli troops went house to house in Netzarim to empty the last remaining Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke of expanding settlements in the West Bank.
Also on Monday, security forces prepared for possible violence in militant West Bank settlements.
Workers removed a Jewish candelabra, or menorah, from the roof of Netzarim's synagogue before troops entered to evacuate about 600 residents and an unknown number of sympathisers.
The secretary of Netzarim, Eliahu Uzan, said the community was resigned to its fate.
"We know what will happen," Uzan told Channel 1 TV. "We have come to terms with this, unless there is an exceptional miracle. We know that apparently tonight we won't be there."
Some residents continued with their everyday lives. Workers poured cement to create a foundation for the roof of the Meshulami family's new house.
Israeli bulldozers destroy buildings
in the evacuated Dugit settlement
"As long as the state of Israel hasn't left here, we need to continue with the little bit of life that we have left," Uzan said.
The community, he says, deplored the notion of clashes with evacuation troops.
"In this community, there was never violence, and there never will be," Uzan said.
Arrests
Three youths who had come to Netzarim to resist the evacuation were arrested on Sunday in possession of metal spikes, oil, barbed wire and paint, the police commander in charge of the evacuation, Hagai Doton, said in Netzarim on Monday.
Forces began evacuating the 21 Gaza settlements on Wednesday, more than a year after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon concluded Israel could no longer defend its 38-year-old occupation of the coastal strip, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state.
After the settlements are evacuated and demolished, Israel is to turn Gaza over to Palestinian control for the first time.
But while Palestinians and others in the international community are pushing for a quick renewal of talks, Sharon conditioned progress on a halt to Palestinian violence and said Israel would continue building in the West Bank, where most of its more than 240,000 settlers live.
Sharon pledge
The Jerusalem Post newspaper on Monday quoted Sharon as saying Israel would continue to build in the West Bank, reiterating a policy that has put him into conflict with the United States.
"There will be building in the settlement blocs," The Jerusalem Post quoted Sharon as saying, referring to large settlements in the West Bank such as Maaleh Adumim, outside Jerusalem, and Ariel, not far from Tel Aviv.
"The Ariel bloc will remain a part of Israel forever, connected territorially to Israel," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Sharon has said he hopes the Gaza pullout will help Israel hold on to the settlement blocs in any future peace deal.
The forcible evacuations in Gaza have proceeded far more quickly than expected and with little violence.
That could change as the evacuation operation turns northward to the West Bank. Residents have already pulled out of two of the four settlements to be emptied, but as many as 2000 right-wing extremists - most non-residents - have holed up in the two others, Sanur and Homesh. About 5500 forces were to be deployed to those settlements to carry out the evacuations, police spokesman Avi Zelba said.
Security officials said those settlements were likely to be evacuated on Tuesday.
Palestinian security forces in the area of the settlements were deploying to prevent attacks during the pullout, Palestinian officials said.
Zero tolerance
Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said officials would exhibit no tolerance for people who resist evacuation forces.
"We hope that most of the weapons (in Homesh and Sanur) have been collected," Ezra told Israel Radio on Monday.
"We will deal with people with zero tolerance and all those who try to face off with the army will ultimately find themselves in jail."
As troops prepared to wrap up the Israeli withdrawals, displaced settlers from Gaza were setting up two tent camps just outside the coastal strip on Monday to protest what they said was the government's failure to provide alternate housing, Army Radio reported.
Sharon has called the establishment of tent camps a political ploy to create sympathy, and says there is ample compensation and housing for evacuated settlers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/207F9894-901A-433C-8E2B-1C02E0D42E2B.htm
Troops are heading to the West Bank for the operation, due to start on Tuesday.
Residents of two West Bank settlements due to be evacuated have already left, but an estimated 2,000 activists have gathered at two others - Sanur and Homesh - and are expected to mount fierce resistance.
Skirmishes were reported on Sunday as tensions rose ahead of the operation.
Military officials believe some of the protesters have weapons and may be ready to use them, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Former Israeli intelligence chief Ami Ayalon told Israeli television that about 8% of the 230,000 settlers in the West Bank should be considered dangerous, and did not recognise the state's authority.
"They have no limits, and will do everything they can, including the use of violence," said Mr Ayalon.
The military says armed troops may be deployed to clear the two settlements, a shift from the policy in Gaza where all troops were unarmed.
'Painful situation'
Netzarim was one of the first settlements to be erected in Gaza.
The Israeli army has often blocked approach roads to the isolated settlement, which has been attacked many times by Palestinian militants.
According to the AFP news agency, some 2,000 Israeli security personnel are helping clear Netzarim.
An officer in charge of the operation told the agency he expected all settlers to have left by the afternoon, following a final mourning ceremony.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the withdrawal plan, earlier visited some of the troops involved in the emotional clearances from Gaza.
"You have carried out this operation, which has been very difficult for you and the residents, in a way that demands respect and I thank you," Mr Sharon told soldiers at the Ein Hashlosha base.
"No state in the world can be as proud of having mobilised such a force in such difficult conditions."
Many of the soldiers had prayed and wept with the settlers as they moved them out.
Mr Sharon also praised the way settlers had dealt with the operation, in what he called a "very difficult and painful situation".
Homes demolished
Israeli bulldozers began demolishing homes in four of the empty Gaza settlements on Sunday - at Nissanit and Dugit in the north, and Peat Sadeh and Ganei Tal in the south.
Bulldozers and excavators ripped through the red-tiled roofs and white-washed walls of the homes, the BBC's Jim Fish reports.
The demolition work - expected to take several weeks - is being carried out in agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which will assume responsibility for the land once the Israeli army has left.
The final departure of troops is expected within about a month, once army bases and military installations have been dismantled.
The Palestinian Authority is expected to use much of the land to build new housing for Gaza's overcrowded population.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4171982.stm
Israeli troops went house to house in Netzarim to empty the last remaining Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke of expanding settlements in the West Bank.
Also on Monday, security forces prepared for possible violence in militant West Bank settlements.
Workers removed a Jewish candelabra, or menorah, from the roof of Netzarim's synagogue before troops entered to evacuate about 600 residents and an unknown number of sympathisers.
The secretary of Netzarim, Eliahu Uzan, said the community was resigned to its fate.
"We know what will happen," Uzan told Channel 1 TV. "We have come to terms with this, unless there is an exceptional miracle. We know that apparently tonight we won't be there."
Some residents continued with their everyday lives. Workers poured cement to create a foundation for the roof of the Meshulami family's new house.
Israeli bulldozers destroy buildings
in the evacuated Dugit settlement
"As long as the state of Israel hasn't left here, we need to continue with the little bit of life that we have left," Uzan said.
The community, he says, deplored the notion of clashes with evacuation troops.
"In this community, there was never violence, and there never will be," Uzan said.
Arrests
Three youths who had come to Netzarim to resist the evacuation were arrested on Sunday in possession of metal spikes, oil, barbed wire and paint, the police commander in charge of the evacuation, Hagai Doton, said in Netzarim on Monday.
Forces began evacuating the 21 Gaza settlements on Wednesday, more than a year after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon concluded Israel could no longer defend its 38-year-old occupation of the coastal strip, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state.
After the settlements are evacuated and demolished, Israel is to turn Gaza over to Palestinian control for the first time.
But while Palestinians and others in the international community are pushing for a quick renewal of talks, Sharon conditioned progress on a halt to Palestinian violence and said Israel would continue building in the West Bank, where most of its more than 240,000 settlers live.
Sharon pledge
The Jerusalem Post newspaper on Monday quoted Sharon as saying Israel would continue to build in the West Bank, reiterating a policy that has put him into conflict with the United States.
"There will be building in the settlement blocs," The Jerusalem Post quoted Sharon as saying, referring to large settlements in the West Bank such as Maaleh Adumim, outside Jerusalem, and Ariel, not far from Tel Aviv.
"The Ariel bloc will remain a part of Israel forever, connected territorially to Israel," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Sharon has said he hopes the Gaza pullout will help Israel hold on to the settlement blocs in any future peace deal.
The forcible evacuations in Gaza have proceeded far more quickly than expected and with little violence.
That could change as the evacuation operation turns northward to the West Bank. Residents have already pulled out of two of the four settlements to be emptied, but as many as 2000 right-wing extremists - most non-residents - have holed up in the two others, Sanur and Homesh. About 5500 forces were to be deployed to those settlements to carry out the evacuations, police spokesman Avi Zelba said.
Security officials said those settlements were likely to be evacuated on Tuesday.
Palestinian security forces in the area of the settlements were deploying to prevent attacks during the pullout, Palestinian officials said.
Zero tolerance
Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said officials would exhibit no tolerance for people who resist evacuation forces.
"We hope that most of the weapons (in Homesh and Sanur) have been collected," Ezra told Israel Radio on Monday.
"We will deal with people with zero tolerance and all those who try to face off with the army will ultimately find themselves in jail."
As troops prepared to wrap up the Israeli withdrawals, displaced settlers from Gaza were setting up two tent camps just outside the coastal strip on Monday to protest what they said was the government's failure to provide alternate housing, Army Radio reported.
Sharon has called the establishment of tent camps a political ploy to create sympathy, and says there is ample compensation and housing for evacuated settlers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/207F9894-901A-433C-8E2B-1C02E0D42E2B.htm
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When the cameras were turned off, he stopped crying and walked away.
Another family invited a television crew into their homes and then insisted that soldiers should drag them out.
There is no question that settlers were genuinely grieving over the loss of their homes, their livelihood and their dreams.
But they were also keenly aware that their struggle was being broadcast across the world, showing how difficult it is for the Jewish state to pull settlers out from occupied land.
"The (settlers') goal was to create a legacy, a trauma that was so big ... that no Israeli government would dare to do something similar in the future," said Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
Political decision
And that goal may, along with intense media coverage, have dovetailed with the aims of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has said that Israel will not consider pulling the bulk of its settlers from the West Bank, the heartland of biblical Israel, despite pressure from Washington to evacuate more settlements.
"The political decision to let the media in was to get every favourable point in world public opinion," said veteran military correspondent Ron Ben Yishai.
"The reason was to show the world, look how it is when we have to evict ... people from Gaza ... Try to imagine what will happen if you try to evict all the settlements in Judea and Samaria," he added using the biblical names for the West Bank.
The Israeli army, which sometimes limits press coverage of military operations, let more than 500 journalists - one for every three settler families - into Gaza to cover the withdrawal, and provided shuttle buses and refreshments.
Embedded
Journalists were in almost every settler home, embedded with military units and broadcasting live from synagogues as the army dragged settlers out of houses of worship.
"Every side, the Palestinians, the Israelis, the settlers all know the media is the most dominant tool to achieve your goals and they use it," said Major Sharon Feingold, a spokeswoman for the Israeli army.
In the months leading up to the pullout, there was a sharp dispute in the army over how to handle media coverage.
Some senior commanders favoured limiting access for fear that the media would get in the way of soldiers.
In the end, the chief of staff, Lieutenantt General Dan Halutz intervened and allowed free access.
The army apparently felt that it would be impossible to block the press and was also keen to show the world - and Israelis at home - that it was sensitive to the settlers, an image far different from what the world was used to see of an army that has just spent years violently cracking down on Palestinian protesters and resistance fighters.
Training
Police trained for a year for the mission and rarely used force, even when settlers taunted them and drenched them with paint.
Many soldiers were visibly moved by the settlers and several could be seen breaking in tears as they were forced to pull settlers out of their homes.
"They trained the soldiers and policemen to be aware all the time ," Ben Yishai said. "It means how you look, not just what do you do."
The settlers' publicity offensive may have backfired.
Holocaust imagery
Some had dressed in Nazi concentration camp uniforms, wearing Stars of David on their clothing.
Many Israelis were angered by the sight of settlers using Holocaust imagery and of photos of children being brought before the cameras and settlers attacking soldiers.
Sharon said the settlers' plight initially moved him to tears, but he told the Haaretz daily that when he saw dozens of ultranationalist youths hurling bottles and pouring harmful substances on the soldiers "the pain turned to rage."
And the fact that the army completed the Gaza withdrawal in just a week may be an indication that the withdrawal was not as gut wrenching as many people had anticipated.
"Until now it was easier than expected," Ben Yishai said. "I don't think that the settlers succeeded in making it look like a national trauma."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/894889AA-D4B5-4969-9B8C-E5FA2A9ED99E.htm
Residents of Netzarim, the last of the 21 Gaza Strip settlements to be evacuated, gathered in their synagogue Monday for a final worship service before leaving the enclave later in the day.
The era of settlement in the Gaza Strip will come to an end with the evacuation of the embattled settlement, the target of countless Palestinian terror attacks and the enclave which many had believed would be dismantled before all others.
In the synagogue, residents prayed together with the soldiers who guarded them over the years, before leaving with the Torah scrolls cradled in the arms of Netzarim old-timers.
The settlers then carried the synagogue's menorah, earlier removed from the roof, through the streets of Netzarim on their shoulders. The scene was reminiscent of images depicted on the Arch of Titus, which shows Romans carrying away a menorah and other booty looted from the Second Temple during the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
"We are leaving against our will, but we are not going with our heads bowed," said Rabbi Tzion Tzion-Tawil. "The saplings which are being uprooted here, we will replant throughout the country until we make our return to Netzarim."
They were then to board armored buses for their departure, heading initially to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There are currently 80 veteran families at the settlement, along with 20 families of newcomers, about 500 people in all.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz visited Netzarim early Monday to meet with leaders of the settlement, who promised to work to prevent violence during the evacuation.
But the settlement officials added that there was a group of youths who had infiltrated the settlement, and that the young protesters might not abide by the "ground rules" agreed upon by the army and the residents.
Settlers overnight called police to arrest and eject three right-wing activists who had written slogans on walls, including "Sharon, Hitler is proud of you," and "[Rabin assassin] Yigal Amir, we need you."
The three, who were found with paint, flammable liquids and tire-puncturing spikes, are a part of a group of up to six activists who apparently entered the settlement in the trunks of cars.
Symbol and flashpoint
Netzarim has long been a symbol and flashpoint for Israelis and Palestinians. Isolated and hard to defend, the enclave at times experienced daily Palestinian rifle and grenade fire. Settlers placed signs throughout Israel proclaiming "It is at Netzarim that Israel will triumph."
In the first month of the Intifada, Netzarim junction was the site of an Israeli-Palestinian exchange of fire which claimed the life of 12-year-old Muhammed Dura, the central Palestinian icon of the uprising.
Netzarim was also seen as significant as a result of a public statement by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - prior to announcement of the disengagement plan - that "the fate of Netzarim will be the fate of Tel Aviv."
"We knew this day would come, but we will get over it and move on," said Netzarim Rabbi Eyal Vered of the evacuation. "We will win, but not with force. God forbid that blood will be spilled."
IDF Major General Dan Harel, overall military commander of the Gaza Strip pullout, indicated that he believed the Monday evacuation of Netzarim would proceed smoothly.
"Its brave residents have withstood years under the threat of terrorism, shoulder to shoulder with us. Both the residents of Netzarim and we paid with lives in defending the settlement," Harel said in remarks broadcast Monday.
"I am acquainted with the people of Netzarim, they are excellent people, people with values, and I know that the evacuation will be dignified, in a manner which is worthy also of them."
Seven settlements evacuated Sunday
The army and police Sunday completed the evacuation of settlers from Slav, Katif, Dugit, Neveh Dekalim, Atzmona, Elei Sinai and Nisanit. The security forces did not meet any major opposition from the evacuees.
Only the isolated central Gaza settlement of Netzarim remained to be evacuated, and that is scheduled to take place Monday.
The Yad Mordechai junction north of the Gaza Strip was closed to vehicular traffic last night as Elei Sinai and Nisanit settlers marched northward.
Residents of Katif, along with the soldiers who came to evacuate them, held a tearful final worship service Sunday before boarding buses and cars to leave the settlement. A parallel prayer service was held at the settlement of Atzmona, at the southern end of Gush Katif.
One of those who took the Torah scrolls out of the synagogue at the conclusion of the prayers was school principal David Hatuel, whose wife Tali and four daughters were killed in a Palestinian terror ambush last year.
Soldiers who arrived at Katif in the pre-dawn hours found the gates locked, as youths smoking cigarettes loitered around piles of flammable materials such as hay, tires and wooden planks, preparing for resistance.
Despite massive bales of straw set ablaze at the entrance to Katif in a bid to delay the evacuation, columns of police entered the settlement with the help of a bulldozer at around 10 A.M. Sunday.
On Katif's gate, scorched from a large protest pyre that blazed in the morning hours, residents hung a sign that read "We shall return soon."
Residents also spray-painted messages on their houses. "From this place, House No. 23, Itzik and Anat Cohen were expelled."
Troops entered Slav, Katif and Atzmona before noon Sunday. Later in the day, troops moved into Elei Sinai and Nisanit in the northern Strip.
Stiff resistance had been expected from some 1,000 residents and hundreds of illegal infiltrators still in the first three settlements, but no major opposition was met by the forces.
Closely following the evacuations, bulldozers Sunday razed more than 30 homes in Nissanit and Dugit in the northern Gaza Strip, marking the first large-scale demolitions during the disengagement.
Shortly afterward, house demolitions began in the Gush Katif settlement of Pe'at Sadeh.
More than 200 bulldozers are now in Gush Katif awaiting demolition orders.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/614900.html