Israeli troops enter Gaza settlements: final phase of removing settlers

In the West Bank, extremists exchanged blows with soldiers and slashed tyres of army jeeps near Sanur, one of the enclaves to be dismantled later this week.

The clashes gave a foretaste of violent confrontations expected when the evacuations move to the West Bank.

In comments at the start of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called acts of violent resistance to the pullout "hooliganism" and said Jewish settler leaders - once his friends and allies - were exploiting the suffering of their followers to push a political agenda.

Katif, Atzmona and Slav - the remaining communities in the main settlement bloc, Gush Katif - were being emptied on
Sunday, as was the northern Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai.

Bulldozers at work

The last of the 21 Gaza settlements, Netzarim, is to be evacuated on Monday, with the entire Gaza evacuation
compressed into just one week, far shorter than the three weeks security forces foresaw.

Earlier on Sunday, bulldozers smashed through the gated front entrance of Katif, where settlers had set fire to piles of tyres and rubbish, before several hundred troops and police surged in to begin evicting residents.

In Atzmona, more than a thousand unarmed troops and police forces barged through the entrance, greeted by chants of "Jews do not expel Jews" where some 60 families and 200 right-wing activists are still holed up.

In the evacuated Ganei Tal, workers were drilling and hammering away to dismantle the interior of the synagogue as evicted settlers were allowed back in to pack up their belongings.

Conclusion by Tuesday

Dozens of Jewish settlers on Sunday exchanged blows with Israeli soldiers outside Sanur. Witnesses said settlers
slashed the tires of an army jeep and attacked a TV cameraman.

"We expect some harsh resistance there," army spokeswoman Major Sharon Feingold told The Associated Press.

"We know that some of them are armed, and we're still in dialogue with them."

By Tuesday, officials hoped all 21 Gaza settlements would be empty.

Also on Sunday morning, crews were to head to the empty settlements to start demolishing houses.

Before the evacuation began, Israeli leaders said it might take three weeks to remove all the settlers from Gaza, taking into account attacks from Palestinians or extremist Israelis.

However, the evacuation has proceeded with little violence.

West Bank

Evacuation of the four West Bank enclaves is expected later in the week, after completion of the Gaza operation.

Two of the four, Ganim and Kadim next to the West Bank town of Jenin, are empty, but security officials estimate that more than 2000 extremists have moved into the other two, where a few a dozen families were living when the pullout plan was announced almost two years ago.

The extra hands have shown potential for igniting violence during the evacuation, and a security official acknowledged that a scenario of holdouts opening fire on troops was possible.

Reclamation

Preparing to take control of the settlement areas in the most significant change in the Mideast map in decades, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree on Saturday appropriating Jewish settlement land for public use once Israel's evacuation is complete.

Abbas's proclamation seizing control of the evacuated Gaza land was meant to assert the authority of the Palestinian government in an area still largely dominated by political warlords, and where corruption among officials is deeply ingrained.

Many Palestinians feared prime land could end up in the hands of senior officials of the ruling Fatah organisation.

The 21 settlements, with 8500 residents, and several military installations controlled about 20% of the land in the narrow coastal strip that also is home to 1.3 million Palestinians.

About 9% of the land expropriated by Israel is claimed by private Palestinian owners, who will have an opportunity to reclaim their property, while the rest had been in the public domain.

Abbas has warned his people that the world will regard developments in Gaza as a test of whether the Palestinians are ready for independence.

Resistance adamant

Also, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has insisted that Abbas pacify Gaza and disarm resistance groups before he agrees to return to talks about the "road map" peace plan, introduced more than two years ago by US President Bush but quickly stalemated.

As Abbas issued his decree, dozens of masked gunmen from the Hamas movement briefly took over the central square of Gaza City in a show of defiance against the president, and made clear the resistance had no intention of disarming.

"We will keep all our weapons, and our military equipment, and we will develop it further, God willing. Our battle with the enemy is long and will continue," said a spokesman known only as Abu Obaideh.

Abbas also announced that 25 January will be the date for Palestinian parliamentary elections, postponed from July.

Hamas is expected to do well in the voting, fielding candidates for the first time.

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Israeli soldiers and police have prayed with settlers in the Gaza Strip before removing the last residents from the large Gush Katif settlement bloc.

Settlers then carried Torah scrolls onto buses, chanting prayers as they left, television pictures showed.

The army had forced its way through burning barricades into Katif, one of the last settlements to be evacuated.

Only one of Israel's 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip - Netzarim - is expected to remain inhabited by nightfall.

Bulldozers have begun to demolish the homes in some settlements in accordance with an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel has spent five days making a series of swift evictions from settlements around the Gaza Strip, but suspended action for 24 hours from sunset on Friday to mark the Jewish Sabbath.

Settlers at Katif had set tyres and bales of hay alight at the gates of the settlement in an effort to block Israeli troops from removing them on Sunday.

The army used a huge armoured bulldozer to clear the burning material from the gates of Katif.

Rapid operation

Israeli forces also forced their way into the southern settlements of Atzmona and Slav on Sunday, where they faced only token protest - if any.

"Take off your sunglasses and look me in the eye," a girl shouted through her tears at a soldier evacuating Atzmona.

"How can you evict a young girl like me?" she demanded of the soldier twice her size, the Reuters news agency reported.

Many police and soldiers have cried with settlers during the evacuation, an Israeli police spokeswoman told the BBC.

A settler family in Atzmona had set up a symbolic "Cemetery of the Oppressors", with tombstones for Hitler and Arafat, among others.

The name on the final tombstone was blank. A settler woman at the scene refused to say who it was for.

Government vote

The Israeli cabinet gave its final approval to the clearance of three small northern Gaza sites and four West Bank settlements on Sunday.

Several of the settlements in question have already been abandoned.

Army officials say they hope to complete the full eviction by Tuesday, several weeks ahead of schedule.

On Saturday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the settlement of Netzarim would eventually form part of a seaport for Gaza, and thousands of public housing units would be built in Morag.

Netzarim residents have reportedly agreed to leave on Monday and will relocate en masse to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, where they will be housed in dormitories.

It is not clear how long they intend to stay there.

Israeli officials have agreed with the Palestinian Authority (PA) that all homes belonging to the 8,000 settlers in Gaza should be demolished after the pullout has been completed.

The PA has also issued a decree taking control of all vacated lands in the Gaza Strip for public use.

Israel has controlled the Gaza Strip since capturing it from Egypt in 1967.

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