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Bulldozers in Peat Sadeh destroy about 40 homes per hour. (AP)
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Kids used to live in Peat Sadeh. (AP)
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Peat Sadeh: Red roof, sea view. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners August 21, 2005 |
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| Tali Hatuel, murdered by Palestinian terrorists with her four daughters. David Hatuel today was expelled from his Atzmona home, which is to be destroyed and the land handed over to the Palestinian Authority. |
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Israeli bulldozers leveled homes in four Gaza communities Sunday, reducing once-thriving villages within hours to refuse dumps and sealing the fate of Jewish settlement in the coastal strip.
Clouds of cement dust rose over the communities of Nissanit, Dugit, Peat Sadeh and Ganei Tal in the first large-scale demolitions since the Israeli pullout began six days ago, adding an air of finality to the pullout by making it obvious the settlers can never go back. The military plans to raze all Israeli houses in Gaza within two weeks.
Earlier Sunday, thousand of troops poured into four other settlements in the final phase of removing Gaza residents from their homes. They were met by blazing barricades, pleading residents and a mock cemetery built "for anyone who expels Jews from their homes."
Other settlers left in a dignified procession, quietly weeping.
In Jerusalem, Israel's Cabinet gave final approval to the evacuation of the last seven of 25 Gaza and West Bank communities marked for dismantling.
In Sunday's demolitions, excavators and massive D9 bulldozers plowed through the whitewashed walls of red-roofed homes. The structures crumbled under the onslaught of the blades. Only mounds of rubble and abandoned belongings remained.
In Nissanit, cranes lifted up prefabricated homes and placed them on flatbed trucks, to be driven to Israel. Piles of rubble lined the settlement's main street.
Security officials said 50 bulldozers were operating in Gaza. A senior Defense Ministry official, Victor Bargil, said demolitions should be completed within two weeks -- much faster than initially assumed. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had said last week the military needs up to a month to raze the homes and hand the territory to the Palestinians.
The demolitions are part of a quiet understanding with the Palestinians who want to clear the areas and build multi-story apartment blocs to address a severe housing shortage.
In northern Samaria on the "West Bank," extremists exchanged blows with soldiers and slashed tires of army jeeps near Sanur, one of the enclaves to be dismantled later this week. Police and the military said 10 officers were lightly injured in skirmishes that gave a foretaste of violent confrontations expected when the evacuations move to the West Bank.
In comments at the start of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called acts of violent resistance to the pullout "hooliganism" and said Jewish settler leaders -- once his friends and allies -- were exploiting the suffering of their followers to push a political agenda.
The forcible removal of settlers in 21 Gaza communities began Wednesday, more than a year after Sharon concluded that Israel could no longer defend its 38-year-old occupation of the coastal strip, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state. The evacuations have proceeded with relatively little violence.
Katif, Atzmona and Slav -- the remaining communities in the main settlement bloc, Gush Katif -- were emptied on Sunday, as was the northern Gaza community of Alei Sinai.
The last of the 21 Gaza communities, Netzarim, is to be evacuated Monday, with the entire Gaza evacuation compressed into just one week, far shorter than the three weeks security forces predicted.
In Katif, an Israeli army bulldozer broke through the locked gates of the community Sunday to clear a blazing fire of hay, tire and wooden planks so troops could move freely.
Longtime resident Haim Ben-Arieh walked over to the commander of the group that had come to evict his family, shook his hand, and urged him to refuse to carry out the mission.
"I'm very sorry," said the soldier, who looked on the verge of tears. He gave the family until after noontime prayers to leave their unpacked home.
Ben-Arieh then turned to clip his front hedge. "I love this place and will take care of it until the bitter end," he said.
Residents held prayers and a farewell ceremony in the synagogue, then filed in a quiet, tearful procession to the waiting buses, led by the rabbi cradling a Torah scroll. Resigned to the inevitable, they had decided at a community meeting earlier to leave with dignity.
Earlier Sunday, an emotional memorial ceremony was held for Katif resident Tali Hatuel, 34, and her four children, ages 2-11, who were killed in a Palestinian shooting ambush on a Gaza road in May 2004. Palestinian snipers had opened fire on a previous memorial ceremony. (See previous Israel Insider commentary: Five less opponents of disengagement.)
Mourners surrounded five plastic chairs, each bearing a handwritten note with the name of the dead, and the orange ribbon of pullout opponents tied to the back. 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.
In Atzmona, outside the home of the Harush family, stood a mock cemetery with cardboard tombstones bearing the names of the Jews' foes across the ages -- Pharaoh, Titus, Haman, Hitler and Arafat.
An empty grave marked by a blank tombstone "was dug for anyone who expels Jews from their homes," explained 14-year-old Yehoyada, from the West Bank settlement of Efrat, who refused to give his family name. The implication was clear to all.
Forces entering Slav encountered no resistance from the few families that remained. Most had left earlier to avoid being evicted.
Forces also entered the northern Gaza settlement of Alei Sinai, from where residents planned to leave on foot and walk to a gathering place in nearby Israel. Troops were going house to house there telling people to leave.
The Cabinet on Sunday authorized the removal of the remaining seven communities.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said the Gaza pullout will re-energize the U.S.-sponsored "road map" peace plan, while giving Israelis and Palestinians more security and prosperity.
"The United States views the Israeli disengagement from Gaza as an important opportunity ... to take further steps forward toward a better future for Israelis and Palestinians," said Welsh, the first senior U.S. official to visit Gaza since October 2003 when Palestinians attacked a U.S. diplomatic convoy and killed three Americans.
Security officials expect violent resistance during the forcible evacuation of two northern West Bank communities, Sanur and Homesh, where some 2,000 anti-pullout opponents are camped out preparing for a fight.
Dozens of Jewish settlers on Sunday exchanged blows with Israeli soldiers outside Sanur. Witnesses said settlers slashed the tires of an army jeep and attacked a TV cameraman.
"We expect some harsh resistance there," army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold told The Associated Press. "We know that some of them are armed, and we're still in dialogue with them." Despite the army claim, Israeli media reported that Sa-nur residents have all returned their army-issued weapons.
Avner Shimoni, head of the Gush Katif regional council, said some settlers would set up a tent city outside in Israel's Negev Desert, near Gaza, to protest what he said was the government's failure to find new housing for the settlers.
The government says it is it providing ample housing and compensation to all evacuated settlers.
The AP contributed to this report.
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