Israeli police push into Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Israeli police cut through the main gate of the Gaza largest settlement early on Tuesday, seizing control of a major flashpoint with Jewish settlers who have resisted orders to leave the community under Israel's Gaza withdrawal plan. Police burst through the main gate and Neve Dekalim's other entrances, then proceeded to cut off the metal gate with an electric saw. Police officials said the operation was meant to allow people to freely exit the settlement on Tuesday, the last day for residents to leave voluntarily.
There were few protesters in Neve Dekalim on Tuesday, in contrast to the previous day. On Monday hundreds of activists, many of them youths, had blocked police from entering the site. The adolescents smashed car windows and set fire to tyres, ignoring appeals for calm from settler leaders, after the Israeli army declared a formal start to the Gaza Strip pullout.
After midnight on Tuesday, settlers remaining in the Gaza Strip are to be forcibly removed by Israeli forces. Today the settlement of Dugit was closed without incidents.
Eviction warnings to 9,000 settlers in all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 settlements in the West Bank went into effect at midnight on Sunday. The pullout, claimed by Palestinian militants as a victory and decried by some Israelis as a surrender to violence, is seen by the US as a catalyst for new peace moves.
Many of Gaza's 8,500 settlers streamed out before Israel set the pullout in motion, but more than half remained. They were reinforced by 5,000 ultranationalists, raising fears of violence.
Hundreds of settlers have signed state compensation deals to leave. Those who refuse to go could lose a third of the money, which ranges from USD 150,000 to USD 400,000 per family. Israel intends to leave the Gaza settlements and the four isolated enclaves in the West Bank by September 4, and complete the Gaza pullout in October. But it plans to retain control of Gaza's airspace and possibly border crossings.
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08/08/2005
