Violence erupts at west bank settlement
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-22 19:00

NETZARIM, Gaza Strip - Troops went house to house to clear out Gaza's last Jewish settlement Monday, wrapping up Israel's historic pullout from the coastal strip, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would expand large West Bank settlements.

An Israeli bulldozer destroys a house in the Jewish settlement of Morag, as seen from the outskirts of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Monday, Aug. 22, 2005. After the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip are completely evacuated and knocked down, Israel is to turn Gaza over to Palestinian control for the first time. [AP]

More than 5,000 troops, meanwhile, headed to two militant West Bank settlements slated to be evacuated Tuesday. Security forces braced for a possible confrontation, saying some 2,000 ultranationalist youths holed up there planned to resist violently. Security officials said militants had hoarded stun grenades and tear gas canisters and planned to hurl burning tires onto rivers of cooking oil.

In Netzarim, the approximately 600 residents of the farming community, one of Gaza's first settlements, were not expected to put up a fight after reaching an agreement with the military on a quiet departure. After midday prayers, Netzarim settlers were to drive out of Gaza in more than 30 armored buses and head to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest shrine.

On Monday morning, workers removed a Jewish candelabra, or menorah, from the roof of the synagogue before troops entered in large numbers and told residents and an unknown number of sympathizers it was time to go.

"We need a miracle so that we might stay here again tonight," said Jonathan Weinberg, 21, who came to Netzarim from the West Bank settlement of Hashmonaim to reinforce the settlers here.

Some residents found solace in continuing with their everyday lives. Workers poured concrete to create a foundation for the roof of the Meshulami family's new house.

"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," Netzarim's secretary, Eliahu Uzan, told Channel 1 TV. "We just have to continue."

Shlomo Keshet, a resident of Netzarim and the father of five, was packing car seats into the family van and preparing to relocate to a dormitory in a college in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Residents, he said, agreed not to resist evacuation violently.

Netzarim, on the outskirts of Gaza City, has been the target of frequent attacks by Palestinian militants and was one of the coastal strip's most hardline and isolated settlements.

Three youths who had come to Netzarim to resist the evacuation were arrested Sunday in possession of metal spikes, oil, barbed wire and paint, said the police commander in charge of the evacuation, Hagai Dotan.

Forces began evacuating the 21 Gaza settlements last week, 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.

As troops prepared to wrap up the Israeli withdrawals, displaced settlers from Gaza were setting up two tent camps just outside the coastal strip Monday to protest what they said was the government's failure to provide alternate housing, Army Radio said. Sharon has called the establishment of tent camps a political ploy to create sympathy, and insists there's ample compensation and housing for evacuated settlers.

The pullout from Gaza and four small West Bank settlements is sure to reshape Mideast peace efforts in unpredictable ways. After the settlements are completely evacuated and knocked down, 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.

Speaking to evacuating troops on Sunday, Sharon said there would be no further unilateral withdrawals. The next step would be a return to the stalled internationally backed "road map" peace plan, he said 錕斤拷 if his conditions were fulfilled.

"In order to move to the road map, terrorism must stop 錕斤拷 terrorism, violence, incitement 錕斤拷 terror organizations must be dismantled, their weapons confiscated, serious reforms carried out," Sharon said.

A senior government official confirmed a Jerusalem Post newspaper report quoting Sharon as saying Israel would continue to build in the West Bank 錕斤拷 a policy that has put him into conflict with the U.S. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on policy matters.

The newspaper quoted Sharon as saying the Ariel bloc, near Tel Aviv, "will remain a part of Israel forever, connected territorially to Israel." The Maaleh Adumim bloc outside Jerusalem, he said, "will continue to grow and be connected to Jerusalem."

Sharon has said he hopes the Gaza pullout will help Israel hold on to the settlement blocs in any future peace deal. The future of Jewish settlements outside those blocs, where far fewer Israelis live, is less certain.

The forcible evacuations in Gaza have proceeded far more quickly than expected, and with relatively 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 2,000 right-wing extremists 錕斤拷 most non-residents 錕斤拷 have holed up in the two others, Sanur and Homesh. Some 5,500 forces were to be deployed to those settlements to carry out the evacuations, police spokesman Avi Zelba said.

Palestinian security forces in the area of the settlements were deploying to prevent militant attacks during the pullout, Palestinian officials said.

Violence between Jewish settlers and soldiers erupted in the area on Sunday, with settlers slashing the tires of army vehicles and setting an army tractor on fire while a soldier was inside. Settlers also exchanged blows with soldiers.

Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said officials would exhibit no tolerance for people who take on 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."

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