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A goodbye note, painted on the side of an abandoned home in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim. Today, Israel is expected to complete the eviction of Katif, Atzmona, Elei Sinai, and Slav. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 21, 2005 |
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Hundreds of soldiers began evacuating the settlements of Atzmona and Katif, where they penetrated despite a blazing fire set by protestors at the front gate. Forces are expected to move in on the settlements of Slav and Elei Sinai today, leaving Netzarim and four settlements in the northern West Bank to be cleared out this week. Two other northern Gaza settlements, Dugit and Nissanit, were virtually empty on Sunday, residents having left before they could be evicted.
An Israeli army bulldozer broke through Katif's locked gates -- clearing a blazing fire of hay, tire and wooden planks -- in order to achieve the final phase of Gaza's settlement evacuation.
Black smoke billowed from a small fire of burning trash and tires at the entrance to Atzmona, and a tattered orange protest flag fluttered in the wind.
Worshippers, most dressed in orange protest shirts bearing the motto, "This faith can't be stopped," gathered at the settlement's synagogue for a morning prayer service.
Just before soldiers arrived to forcibly evacuate them, residents of the settlement held an emotional memorial ceremony for the victims of a Palestinian shooting ambush on a Gaza road in May 2004.
Tali Hatuel, 34 who was eight months pregnant, and her four children aged 2 to 11, were shot by Palestinian gunmen as they drove from their home in a Gaza Strip settlement to the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Mourners surrounded five plastic chairs, each bearing a handwritten note with the name of dead. Tied to the back of each chair was an orange ribbon, the color of the pullout resistance. A memorial candle was placed on each chair, and crying women lit the candles, as men swayed back and forth in prayer. Hatuel's sobbing husband, David, was comforted by family and friends.
David Hatuel flew in from South Africa, where he now lives.
Police commander Meir Ben-Yishai said 56 families and 300 to 400 non-residents who had come to reinforce resistance to the pullout were in Katif on Sunday morning.
In Sunday's evacuations, about 150 families and an unknown number of reinforcements were to be removed from the settlements of Katif, Atzmona and Slav. Military officials said soldiers were also prepared to evacuate the northern Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai, pending Cabinet approval later in the day.
Crews are scheduled to enter emptied settlements on Sunday to pack up the belongings of residents who were forcibly evacuated, and to start demolishing houses en masse as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to clear the land for Palestinian development.
Soldiers have begun to dig eight-meter (25-foot) deep trenches around the evacuated settlements to keep Palestinians from entering.
In the meantime, hundreds of worshippers, including Israeli soldiers, prayed in the synagogue of the Netzarim settlement, which is to be evacuated Monday. The worshippers formed long lines, each man placing his hands on the shoulder of the man before him, and slowly moved through the synagogue.
Netzarim is a hardline settlement, but residents have been negotiating the terms of a non-violent departure with the army.
An official from a college in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, Yigal Cohen-Orgad, said Netzarim's 600 residents would be relocated in dormitories there. It was not immediately clear whether they intended to remain in Ariel temporarily.
Other Gaza evacuees have also resettled in temporary housing in the West Bank.
Allegedly, Ariel is one of the settlement blocs PM Ariel Sharon hopes to hold onto in a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Some have said that he hopes that by giving up Gaza, Israel will able to cement its hold on major settlement blocs, where most of Israel's more than 240,000 settlers live.
In comments at the start of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Sharon called acts of violent resistance "hooliganism."
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree Saturday appropriating Jewish settlement land for public use once Israel's evacuation is complete. Abbas' proclamation was meant to assert the authority of the Palestinian government in an area still largely dominated by political warlords.
The AP contributed to this report.
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