Israel Begins Forced Removal of Jewish Settlers From Gaza as Deadline Expires

Israeli troops began the forced evacuation of thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip Wednesday after a deadline for them to leave expired last night.

Unarmed Israeli soldiers broke though burning barricades and marched door to door ordering people out of their homes in five settlements. The operation is the culmination of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan from the Gaza strip which has been occupied by Israel for nearly four decades.

Troops and police grabbed settlers and pushed them into buses. Scuffles broke out with a large crowd, as protesters burned garbage, fought with police officers and threw eggs and water bottles at them. One woman set herself on fire during an anti-pullout protest in the Negev town of Netivot. She was seriously wounded. Settlers in some farming communities were seen burning their greenhouses and homes rather than leave them to the Palestinians. One man took a sledgehammer to the walls of his home. Police said Wednesday morning that in the last 24 hours they had arrested 498 people, of whom 451 were released.

Police said one woman was arrested for stabbing and lightly wounding a soldier. Soon after the incident, Sharon beseeched settlers not to attack soldiers saying "Don't blame them. Don't make it hard on them. Don't hurt them, hurt me."

Further confrontation looms as hundreds of Israeli troops escorted by bulldozers marched into the Neve Dekalim settlement, a focus of resistance where thousands have defied orders to leave. IDF officials are reportedly hammering out a deal with settlement leaders, whereby the settlers would leave by this afternoon.

Government eviction notices went into effect on Monday but settlers were given 48 hours to leave or be removed from all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank. Many of Gaza's 8,500 settlers packed up trucks ahead of the Wednesday deadline to quit Gaza. But the army estimated about half the settler population would remain in defiance.

Officials say 66 percent of settler families have accepted compensation deals. Those who refused to go could lose a third of the money, ranging from $150,000 to $400,000 dollars per family.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a senior aide to Sharon said that all or nearly all of the 21 Gaza Strip settlements could be evacuated within 48 hours, declaring that the opposition to the disengagement has failed. The army intends to pull out the last troops from Gaza in early October and turn over the land to the Palestinian Authority.

* Chris McGreal, reporter for the London Guardian. He joins us on the line from one of the settlements in Gush Katif.

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