Israeli troops on Monday began removing residents from the final Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Soldiers entered the Netzarim settlement five days after a combined Israeli police and army force began the forced evacuation of 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Workers removed a Jewish candelabra, known as a menorah, from the roof of the settlement’s synagogue before soldiers began to evacuate around 600 residents and an unknown number of sympathisers. The troops were not expecting to encounter significant resistance.
”We have come to terms with this,” Eliahu Uzan, the secretary of Netzarim, told Israeli TV. ”Unless there is an exceptional miracle, we know that apparently tonight we won’t be there. In this community, there was never violence, and there never will be.”
In the next few days, the Israeli operation will switch to evicting Jewish residents from four settlements — two of them militant strongholds — in the West Bank.
More than 5 500 troops were on Monday being redeployed from Gaza to the West Bank amid fears that violent resistance was possible.
Residents have already pulled out of two of the four West Bank settlements, but up to 2 000 right-wing extremists — mostly non-residents — have gathered in the two others, Sanur and Homesh.
The Israeli military chief, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, the said settlers in the West Bank strongholds were stockpiling weapons.
”There are stun grenades and things of that sort … I hope there are no bombs,” he told Israeli TV on Sunday. ”This is worrisome, that a group of extremists can set the agenda in the state of Israel.”
Security officials said evictions in the West Bank settlements were likely to begin on Tuesday.
Violence between Jewish settlers and soldiers erupted in the West Bank on Monday when eight masked Jewish extremists attacked an army tractor near the settlement of Kedumim, slashing its tyres and setting it on fire while a soldier was still in the vehicle, Israeli media reported. The soldier got out and pointed his gun at the attackers, who escaped.
Earlier, around 100 people, mainly teenagers, ran out of Sanur and attacked army bulldozers trying to level ground to create a staging area for the evacuation. Soldiers who tried to carry off one of the attackers were overwhelmed by the settlers.
Some of the protesters slashed the tyres of three army jeeps. Police and the military officials said 10 officers suffered slight injuries.
Forces began evacuating the 21 Gaza settlements on Wednesday, more than a year after the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, decided Israel could no longer defend its 38-year-old occupation of the coastal strip. Palestinians claim the area as part of a future state.
After the settlements have been evacuated and knocked down, Israel will turn Gaza over to Palestinian control for the first time. – Guardian Unlimited Â