Israeli police bracing for pullout scenarios
Israeli police expect most Jewish settlers will resist evacuation from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and are girding for an array of extreme scenarios that include attacks on public figures, and threats of mass suicide, it was reported today.
Police declined comment on the report, which cited a secret document police submitted to Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Newspaper Yediot Ahronot said that contrary to their public declarations, police do not expect most settlers to leave voluntarily.
While not speculating on what form the resistance will take, police are preparing for a variety of possibilities, including resisters unleashing attack dogs on police, building trenches, blocking roads with tree trunks and spikes, and hurling hot oil, paint and rocks from rooftops.
More extreme scenarios envision settlers firing weapons, detonating explosives, throwing firebombs and arming themselves with gas canisters.
The most Armageddon-like scenario has settlers barricading themselves inside buildings and threatening mass suicide in a Waco, Texas, type of siege, the newspaper said.
The newspaper also said police want to shorten the duration of the evacuation from eight weeks to four weeks in Gaza, where 21 settlements are to be dismantled, and to one week in the West Bank, where four are to be abandoned.
