Israeli settlers prepare to leave
16/08/2005 - 17:27:55Hundreds of residents in Israel’s largest Gaza settlement prepared to leave their homes tonight, leaving behind not only years of memories, but thousands of people vowing to stay until troops force them out.
Groups of young die-hards – many of them not residents of Neve Dekalim – tried to block security forces from letting lorries in.
The 8,500 residents of Gaza’s 21 settlements, and 500 in four small Jewish communities in the West Bank have until midnight tonight (11pm Irish time) to leave.
Troops engaged in Israel’s largest non-combat operation ever have orders to evacuate those settlers who refuse to leave, as well as the thousands of pullout opponents who have taken up temporary residence in these settlements to reinforce the resistance.
The cartons and bags strewn all over the first floor of Ayala Ben Simhon’s house belied the defiant motto, “We won’t be evacuated at any price,” painted on one of the walls of her near-empty house.
Unlike others here in this predominantly religious community, Ben Simhon says she isn’t waiting for divine salvation, so she’s packing up. But that doesn’t mean she accepts the decree.
“I don’t understand how it could prove beneficial,” she says. “Concessions just lead to more and more terror.”
Prime minister Ariel Sharon, once the champion of Israel’s settlement movement, is first Israeli leader to evacuate land Palestinians claim for a future state.
Mr Sharon has concluded that Israel’s continued presence in Gaza, home to 1.3 million Palestinians, is indefensible, given the burgeoning Palestinian population, and the human and capital costs of maintaining the settlements.
He also hopes that by giving up these lands, captured in the 1967 Mideast war, Israel will be able to cement its hold on the major West Bank settlement blocs where most of the more than 240,000 settlers live.
Security forces say 120 of the roughly 425 families still left in Neve Dekalim have ordered containers so they can move.
Settlement leaders say some families have ordered the containers to safeguard their belongings, and predict just 50 to 90 families will move out by the midnight deadline, leaving 300 to 350 behind, out of an original 480.
Dozens of the massive metal containers were parked outside homes across the settlement late this afternoon.
Over the past two days, pullout opponents have blocked moving trucks from coming in. Yesterday, they said they were afraid the trucks were modern-day Trojan Horses, sneaking in evacuation forces.
Eventually, after repeated stand-offs between security forces and withdrawal opponents at the main gate to Neve Dekalim, trucks bearing containers rolled in.
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