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Israeli soldiers clear out Gaza Strip
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-17 21:25
Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and
even a nursery school Wednesday and hauled them onto buses in a massive
evacuation, fulfilling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's promise to withdraw from
the Gaza Strip after a 38-year occupation, the Associated Press reported.
Soldiers carried away worshippers still wrapped in their white prayer shawls.
Wailing men ripped their shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual. Women in a
synagogue pressed their faces against the curtain covering the Torah scroll. A
woman set herself on fire at a police roadblock in Israel.
In Gaza, settlers kicked and screamed as they were loaded onto buses. One
woman in Neve Dekalim shouted, "I don't want to! I don't want to!" as she was
carried away.
Irate residents in one outpost employed Nazi-era imagery 锟斤拷 including stars of
David on their T-shirts 锟斤拷 to protest the military's actions.
But there were no signs of serious violence in the settlements as a growing
number of residents appeared to be coming to terms with the withdrawal.
"I believed that God would not let this happen, but this is not true," a
woman said in the isolated settlement of Morag while clutching her baby.
Sharon, who championed the settlements for years, said the images of settlers
being removed from their homes were heartbreaking.
"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in
the eyes," he told a news conference.
But he urged settlers to show restraint.
"I'm appealing to everyone. Don't attack the men and women in uniform. Don't
accuse them. Don't make it harder for them, don't harm them. Attack me. I am
responsible for this. Attack me. Accuse me," Sharon said.
The operation capped a bruising political battle for Sharon, who proposed the
withdrawal more than 18 months ago as a way to reduce friction with the
Palestinians. Opponents accuse him of caving in to Palestinian violence and
abandoning the dream of full control over the biblical Land of Israel.
Throughout the day, some 14,000 troops entered six Jewish settlements: Morag,
Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal, Tel Katifa and Kerem Atzmona.
In several settlements, including the largest 锟斤拷 Neve Dekalim, army commanders
were trying to persuade residents to leave voluntarily.
Security officials said the goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in
just a few days, far more quickly than originally planned. But thousands of
pullout opponents who infiltrated Gaza in recent weeks remained.
In Neve Dekalim, a grizzled colonel, with tears in his eyes, shook hands with
a young father, cradling the man's tiny baby, as he explained it was time to go.
Another commander, identified only as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged another
settler.
"It's not easy. These are very special people. This is the salt of the
earth," Yitzhak said. "But we have a mission and we will carry it out, and I
think these people understand that."
Some teenage activists 锟斤拷 many West Bank activists 锟斤拷 showed fierce resistance.
Troops dragged dozens of protesters, some as young as 12, onto buses and took
them away.
"I want to die!" screamed one youth as he was hauled off.
Several soldiers were hit by white paint bombs, and protesters smashed a bus
window.
Hundreds of protesters holed up in the town's main synagogue.
A group of teenage girls sang, "I believe in the messiah," and many cried
while pressing their faces to the curtain covering the Torah.
In Morag, soldiers encountered cement blocks and burning garbage containers
early Wednesday, briefly clashing with residents. But as the day dragged on,
protesters gradually surrendered.
Under a weeping willow tree at a children's nursery, mothers clutched their
babies, soldiers carried toddlers, settlers ripped their clothes and troops
loaded diapers and toys onto buses for evacuation.
A female soldier with tears in her eyes held a toddler in her arms, gave him
some candy and implored, "Where is his mother?" Another soldier waved away flies
from a toddler lying in a stroller.
Troops carried dozens of worshippers out of the local synagogue, in one case
escorting a crying man covered by a prayer shawl. Some kept praying in front of
the Torah as soldiers removed others.
Soldiers also removed families from their homes. Female residents walked out
under army escort, while the men let themselves by carried. One resident, Eran
Hendel, lay on the floor, read a psalm and ripped his shirt collar before being
carried away.
In the hardline outpost of Kerem Atzmona, irate settlers shouted at soldiers:
"Nazi!" "Refuse orders!" and "Jews don't expel Jews!" Soldiers dragged the
flailing residents out of their homes and loaded them onto buses, as children
sat in their homes crying.
In the Bedolah settlement, Rabbi Menachem Froman hugged and kissed a Torah
scroll as he was led out of the local synagogue. A soldier held him up by the
elbow. The elderly, white-bearded rabbi, who lives in a West Bank settlement,
advocates coexistence with the Palestinians.
In Kfar Darom, another center of fierce resistance, 65 families and 2,000
protesters barricaded themselves behind barbed wire but said they would not
resist violently, the Haaretz newspaper reported.
The Gaza pullout is to be accompanied by a withdrawal from four small West
Bank settlements. Security officials have expressed fears that the West Bank
pullout could be more violent, given the land's biblical significance to
observant Jews.
A 54-year-old West Bank woman opposed to the Gaza pullout set herself on fire
Wednesday in southern Israel, suffering life-threatening burns over 70 percent
of her body, police and hospital officials said. She had the smell of gas on
her, a paramedic said.
Sharon, meanwhile, reiterated Wednesday he would never give up the West
Bank's largest settlement blocs. He said settlers' efforts were not in vain, but
it no longer was realistic to hold on to Gaza, where 1.3 million Palestinians
live in crowded, impoverished conditions.
"True they (settlers) had a dream, and I did, too, that can we hold on to all
the territory, or most of the territory, but things have changed," Sharon said.
The army said it arrested 52 Israelis headed Wednesday to Homesh, one of the
settlements slated for evacuation.
Once Gaza is cleared of civilians, it will take troops about a month to
dismantle military installations and relinquish the coastal strip to Palestinian
control.
The Palestinians have deployed thousands of troops to prevent any attacks on
settlers or Israeli soldiers during the withdrawal. Palestinians have welcomed
the evacuation but also fear that Israel is trying to draw borders without
negotiations.
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