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| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: August 18, 2005 |
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Israeli soldiers sawed down and pried open doors as they forced their way into a nursery filled with Jewish families opposed to the Gaza pullout Thursday, dragging parents holding screaming children out of the building.
One woman briefly forced the soldiers out of the building when she waved a needle she said was infected with the AIDS virus and threatened to stab soldiers trying to remove her from the nursery.
"Get out, get out. If anybody comes near me I will start acting," the woman shouted.
About two dozen soldiers immediately cleared out of the room, and special forces were brought in.
A few minutes later the woman walked out of the building with a medic and several soldiers next to her. Soldiers then rushed back into the building and began dragging out the last holdouts.
Soldiers said the half dozen families with more than 20 children holed up inside of the nursery were all non-resident supporters who had come to the settlement to protest the withdrawal.
"We wanted to help in the battle," said Chavi Healer, 26, who came to Gaza from central Israel with her husband and two small children -- 18-month old girl and a 3 1/2 boy.
"We will stay as long as possible," Healer said, adding that she would leave in the end and not force soldiers to drag her from the room because she is pregnant.
"This is a terrible tragedy and something that can't be understood," she said. "It is unbelievable that the state of Israel has reached this point. They would not do this to Arabs."
After she spoke, soldiers dragged a man out of the room, while a crying woman with an infant in her arms left in tears. One husband and wife locked themselves into a bathroom with their infant child.
Soldiers pried open the door and forced the couple out.
The man then took out a prayer shawl and asked the soldiers to join him in a brief prayer. After praying, the man made a tear in his shirt and his wife's shirt -- a sign of mourning -- and laid down on the floor with his crying child on top of him. The soldiers then dragged the man from the building.
The AP contributed to this report. |
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