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An Israeli soldier walks through dust as he heads back to a staging area near Kfar Maimon, just outside the Gaza Strip. (AP)
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07/22
Haaretz |
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| By israelinsider staff and partners July 22, 2005 |
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Following the mass protest at Kfar Maimon, the army estimates that 600 new arrivals -- in contradiction to the Yesha Council estimates of 1,000 new arrivals -- a total of 1,500 pullout opponents who are not Gush Katif residents are now in the Gaza Strip, joining the region's 8,000 residents. According to military sources, the breach occurred because security forces were unable to hermetically seal off the Gaza Strip.
It now appears that some of the protesters who were believed to be "going home" after the demonstrations at Kfar Maimon instead cut across fields and head west toward the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday night, police arrested 300 opponents to the disengagement for entering the "closed military zone" of the Gaza Strip to reach the Gush Katif settlements. But hundreds others reportedly made it through to the Jewish communities of Gush Katif.
There are many reports of soldiers "turning a blind eye" to protesters enroute to Gaza or even offering guidance and food to them.
A number of the protesters at Kfar Maimon attempted to cut the Gaza Strip boundary fence and reach Gush Katif by foot. They were arrested and transferred to the Be'er Sheva police station for questioning.
Meanwhile, a Givati Brigade infantry soldier was run over Wednesday night after settlers refused to provide ID at a checkpoint between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
A jeep traveling in a civilian convoy pulled out of its lane near the Kissufim crossing, hit the soldier and subsequently fled the scene. The driver was later arrested.
Police later reported that the soldier was not hurt.
The standoff between security forces and pullout opponents began Monday after as many as 30,000 protesters converged on the southern Israeli farming village of Kfar Maimon with the goal of marching into nearby Gaza, in defiance of a government order banning non-residents from entering.
But with rings of soldiers and police preventing them from leaving for the Gaza settlements, where they had hoped to reinforce the thousands of settlers living there, pullout opponents essentially gave up their protest.
Settler leader Bentsi Lieberman said early Thursday that withdrawal opponents would infiltrate Gaza "little by little" instead of in a mass march.
"(The) battle will continue in one format or another," settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein told Israel Radio. "We won't stop for a minute trying to get into Gush Katif."
The AP contributed to this report.
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