 |
 |
 |
|
|
Police carry away protester. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Associated Press August 13, 2005 |
|
| |
During the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four Samarian settlements next week, security forces will politely ask residents to leave and, if that fails, drag them out by force.
Here is how the pullout is expected to be carried out:
- Some 55,000 police and soldiers will participate in the evacuation of 8,500 Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip and 500 in the northern Samaria. The forces have undergone intensive training to prepare.
- Troops will be deployed in six concentric circles in and around Gaza. An unarmed inner circle will remove settlers and a second circle of armed troops will be stationed nearby to deal with possible violence. The outer circles will be charged with preventing Palestinian attacks and keeping out Jewish protesters.
- The evacuation of Gaza's 21 Israeli communities and four communities in Samaria is expected to take three weeks to complete. No evacuations will take place from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
- On Monday, soldiers will knock on residents' doors and inform them they have 48 hours to get out. Forcible evacuations will begin on Wednesday. Officials hope many will leave during this grace period.
- Those who leave during the grace period can travel in their own cars. The army will help pack their belongings without space constraints. Anyone leaving by midnight of Aug. 16 will be entitled to full compensation. Those who miss the deadline may lose up to a third of it.
- Starting Wednesday, unarmed units of 17 soldiers and policemen, both men and women, will go door to door asking residents to go quietly, explaining to them that parliamentary and Cabinet decisions make their presence in Gaza after Aug. 15 illegal.
- The army will arrange the packing of belongings of those who remain illegally, limiting each household to two containers. Large possessions and cars will be left behind and possibly destroyed.
- More than one community will be evacuated at the same time. Officials say how many will depend on the number of residents who leave voluntarily before the deadline.
- All non-Gaza residents and anyone seen walking the streets will be herded onto buses and expelled by force. The army estimates that some 3,000 pullout opponents from outside Gaza have entered the coastal strip in recent weeks.
- Four security forces will handle each resisting settler, with each grabbing a limb and carrying the person to waiting police buses. Female soldiers will deal with women and children.
- Security forces conducting the actual evacuations will not carry guns, using rubber batons instead. Water cannons will be on standby.
- If settlers take to the roofs, construction cranes will hoist troops aloft to force the resisters in the arms of security forces below.
- Security forces are prepared to break into residents' homes to remove resisters.
- Authorities will relocate 48 graves at the cemetery at Gaza's Neve Dekalim community, home to some 840 families, to Israel. This has been one of the most emotionally charged issues the government has faced in the pullout.
- After the evacuations are complete, troops will begin demolishing residents' homes, part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which believes the single-story cottages should be replaced by multistory buildings for Palestinian housing. Israel will remove dangerous material, such as asbestos. Palestinians will use part of the rubble for the construction of a seaport.
- Troops are expected to complete their own pullout, dismantling bases, by October or perhaps earlier.
- Palestinians will take over the land as soon as the army completes its pullout. Major celebrations are planned. The Hamas militant group has rejected a demand by the Palestinian Authority to forego military-style victory parades.
The AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
