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Israel hopeful of early evacuations

Atul Aneja

Stiff resistance at several places

MANAMA: Israeli army began forcible evacuations from a string of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip but faced stiff resistance at several places from an emotive crowd of protestors.

By evening on Wednesday, an estimated 500 to 600 families

remained in Gaza, which is one-third of the total settler population, with many still streaming out.

Security officials were quoted as saying the army planned to clear out the southern half of the main settlement bloc of Gush Katif on Wednesday itself. They said their goal was to clear all 21 settlements in Gaza in the next few days.

Israel's Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky expressed optimism and said that all Gaza Strip settlements could be evacuated by the beginning of next week. Around 14,000 Israeli troops and police entered the settlements of Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal and Tel Katifa after the Tuesday midnight deadline for residents to leave the settlements voluntarily ran out.

As the day passed, the protests seemed to gather in intensity, and in some of the settlements, residents barricaded themselves in synagogues in a last ditch stand, amid smoke that plumed from burning garbage that had been set aflame.

Several soldiers were hit by white paint bombs, and protesters smashed the window of a bus.

Tensions seemed to ease by late afternoon in many of the settlements where the occupiers agreed on an evacuation deal with the army.

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