Israel, Palestinians on alert for Gaza pullout

A donkey cart passes near a Palestinian security post in the refugee camp of Khan Yunes yesterday. Israeli and Palestinian security forces were gearing up to play their parts in the historic Gaza Strip pullout as the clock ticked towards a midnight deadline for settlers to leave the territory voluntarily. PHOTO: AFP

In a pre-dawn "friendly fire" incident, Palestinian militants fired on the settlement of Kfar Darom and an Israeli tank shot back, hitting a Palestinian gunman and wounding five soldiers also responding to the attack, the army said.

"From Sunday morning, Israeli police are going to be on their highest alert," national police commissioner Moshe Karadi said, announcing a series of roadblocks in southern Israel to block opponents of the pullout from slipping into Gaza settlements.

The army said 3,000-4,000 ultra-rightists had already made it into the Gush Katif bloc of settlements despite a month-old ban on new residents, reinforcing the estimated third to half of the 8,500 inhabitants expected to resist evacuation.

Aside from some 50,000 Israeli troops and police assigned to pullout tasks, a 5,000-strong Palestinian force was to deploy near the Jewish enclaves to prevent any bid by militants to disrupt the evacuation due to begin on Wednesday.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef ordered his forces to raise their "level of readiness" to 100 percent.

Thousands of army officers plan on Monday to fan through all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank due to be uprooted, knocking on doors to tell settlers they had until midnight Tuesday to leave on their own or be forcibly ejected.

Israeli media said the Gaza settler council had decided the enclaves would lock their entry gates to soldiers coming to carry out Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from occupied territories he deems to have no security value.