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Palestinian youth burn a homemade Israeli flag and a model of a Jewish settlement during a demonstration organized by a youth organization affiliated with the ruling Fatah movement in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Sunday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 14, 2005 |
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Israeli authorities set up roadblocks across southern Israel and cut off bus service to the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as they began final preparations to begin dismantling all 21 settlements inside Gaza.
Israeli soldiers are set to to seal off the Gaza settlements at midnight Sunday. Two days later, soldiers will begin forcibly removing those residents remaining in the 21 Israeli communities.
Starting Monday morning, in an operation dubbed "Brothers' hand," security forces plan to enter each community, knock on the door of each house, deliver an eviction notice, and offer to help each family pack, even provide babysitting services.
But those who do not leave by Tuesday at midnight will be evicted by force.
As of Sunday, thousands of residents remained inside the settlements, vowing to resist their eviction. Other opponents of the pullout have threatened to hold massive demonstrations against the plan and to run the roadblock on the Gaza border to create chaos and torpedo the plan.
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, Israel's army chief, said about 5,000 infiltrators -- the highest official estimate yet -- are in the Gaza settlements to reinforce those planning to resist evacuation. The infiltrators could make the evacuation more violent, Halutz told reporters.
Police spokesman Avi Zelba said that authorities set up a cordon of roadblocks in southern Israel on Sunday to prevent the opponents from interfering with the pullout. Only residents of southern Israel and those with a legitimate reason for being there will be allowed to cross, police said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces, along with several Egyptian officers, began deploying near Jewish settlements in Gaza. By Monday, thousands of Palestinian troops will be deployed near settlements, to prevent terrorists from reaching the area.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres gave a pep talk to soldiers stationed near the Gaza border, telling them their coming task was crucial to protecting Israel's democracy.
"The settlements must be evacuated they cannot stay here," he told reporters. "I understand that there are feelings. I have sympathy (for the settlers), but they cannot replace a national choice."
Settlers also made last-minute preparations of their own. Settler leaders sent out instructions on how to break the morale of soldiers sent to carry out the eviction orders, according to the Yediot Ahronot daily.
The settlers were told to give the soldiers children's drawings and to take pictures of the soldiers, telling them that history will remember them for their crimes, according to Yediot.
Settlers also planned to seal off their communities early Monday to prevent soldiers from delivering eviction notices.
The army closed the checkpoint into the Gush Katif cluster of settlements in southern Gaza to everyone but residents weeks ago, but thousands of protesters still managed to infiltrate.
"I think that's a sign that a lot of soldiers are also protesting in their way by letting people come in," said Anita Tucker, a resident of the Netzer Chazani settlement.
Brig. Gen. Dan Harel, the military commander in charge of the pullout, said the infiltrators would have no impact on the pullout.
"They won't prevent us from carrying out the disengagement at the time, moment and way that we see fit," he told Army Radio.
Meanwhile, hundreds of settlers gathered at the Gush Katif cemetery singing traditional prayers of redemption as part of a ceremony commemorating the Tisha B'Av holy day marking the destruction of the Jewish Temples. The cemetery's 49 graves are to be moved as part of the pullout.
"Go to the holy patriarchs, the holy matriarchs, tell them `We want to stay here,"' Rabbi Yosef Elnikaveh said, symbolically addressing the dead at the ceremony. "Tell them you don't want anyone to touch you. Tell them you don't want them to open your graves, that you want your graves to rem0ain and be opened only upon the resurrection of the dead."
Another Gaza settler, Yoav Itzhaki, said he and some settlers wanted to establish their own authority in the region, autonomous from Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
"The state of Israel does not have the right to expel the local residents," Itzhaki told Army Radio, reading from the group's charter. "In light of this, we, the residents of the Katif Strip, have decided to stay in our homes and to establish the Jewish Authority of the Gaza Strip."
Police had expected large crowds Sunday at the Western Wall, the Jewish holy site in Jerusalem, as a sign of protest during the Tisha B'Av fast day. However, the crowds were smaller than feared, possibly because of the fierce August heat.
Israel's Islamic Movement called on Muslims to gather at the adjacent Haram a Sharif, the disputed holy site claimed by both Muslims and Jews, to protect it. Thousands of police were sent to the area to prevent a possible outbreak of violence between Arabs and Jews, police said.
About 55,000 Israeli soldiers and police are expected to take part in the pullout from the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the northern West Bank. Some of the forces will remove the settlers from their homes, others will prevent protesters from interfering and still others will protect the soldiers and settlers from attacks by Palestinian terrorists trying to create the impression they are driving the Israelis out.
The Israelis and Palestinians also opened a joint operations center on the Gaza border to help them respond rapidly to any violence, Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said. Israel has promised to retaliate harshly if fired on during the pullout.
Israeli and Palestinian commanders held their final security coordination meeting Sunday, exchanging maps of troop placements in preparation for the deployment later Sunday of 7,500 Palestinian troops along the outskirts of the Gaza settlements to deter militant attacks, the Israeli army said.
The AP contributed to this report.
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