Tears of rage and anguish

An Israeli settler is led away by female policemen after she scuffled with authorities in the southern Gaza Strip settlement of Neve Dekalim yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Backed by bulldozers, Israeli forces fanned out through the occupied territory, marching through makeshift barricades into five settlements after hundreds of families defied a midnight deadline to leave of their own accord.

As smoke rose from tyres set ablaze by protestors, emotions were running high and settlers and soldiers alike wept tears of rage and anguish at the ending of Israel's 38-year occupation of Gaza.

Even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, vilified by settlers who once considered him their champion, said he had been moved to tears by the sight of Jews being hauled from their homes by fellow Jews.

In the main settlement of Neve Dekalim, a group of nine women were dragged kicking and screaming on to a bus by around 50 police and soldiers, an AFP reporter said.

"He (Sharon) has destroyed our lives and it's just one big party for you," screeched one of the women in her 60s. Another cried out: "You are bringing destruction on Israel."

Security forces could also be seen loading youths on to a bus in Neve Dekalim amid scenes of chaos. At one stage, one of the youths smashed a window on the vehicle, clambering out of the back before being intercepted.

The operation marks the first time Israel has withdrawn from Palestinian territory captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has raised hopes in the international community of a new breakthrough in Middle East peace.

Planners of Sharon's disengagement plan indicated the operation, which has deeply divided the nation, would be over in a matter of days despite diehard radicals in some areas barricading themselves behind trenches and barbed wire.

After giving the area's 8,000 settlers 48 hours to leave voluntarily following the formal start of the pullout on Monday, joint teams of thousands of soldiers and police rolled into a series of settlements at daybreak.

First on the list was the largest of the 21 communities, Neve Dekalim, where some 10,000 members of the security forces were on hand after violent clashes erupted on Tuesday.

An army spokesman said troops had moved in to at least four other southern settlements -- Morag, Tal Katifa, Ganei Tal and Bedolah.

Officers also informed residents and their supporters at the radical enclave of Shirat Hayam they were about to storm the settlement entrance, blocked by youths trying to thwart their forcible eviction.

The first group of Israelis to be dumped out of Gaza also hurled abuse at soldiers manning the Kissufim border crossing.

"Why are you enjoying this? People are being kicked out of their homes," screamed one of the 30 passengers out of a window.

Sharon, once the pioneer of Israel's settlement programme in occupied Arab land, said he had been moved to tears witnessing the Gaza events unfold and pledged settlement activity would go on.

"When I see these families with tears in their eyes and police officers with tears in their eyes, it's impossible to look at this without weeping yourself," he told reporters.

Such words fell on deaf ears among those still in Neve Dekalim.

Several hundred religious Jews spent the night in a synagogue singing and praying before an emotional farewell ceremony presided over by Rabbi Harav Mordechai.

"We hope that one day this Torah will come back to Neve Dekalim," said the rabbi as he stored the texts away.

Emotions ran high outside Gaza, with one Israeli woman suffering 60 percent burns after setting fire to herself and running towards a police checkpoint near the border.

Israeli officials vowed they would succeed in ending their long and bloody occupation of the one of the most densely populated places on earth and scene of some of the fiercest fighting in five years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

"We're going to outnumber everybody. We have the technology, the knowledge and the will to confront (defiant settlers)," said Dan Harel, the general in charge of the operation.

A source close to the plan's strategic coordinator, Eival Giladi, told AFP that the operation would be completed much earlier than the initial three weeks scheduled while an army spokesman said it would be over "within a few days".

Giladi told reporters that around 900 of the 1,600 Gaza settler families had left by the midnight deadline, adding that more were still coming through the Kissufim crossing.

"Some families truly wanted to leave and asked for containers," but they were held up by protestors, he said.

Israel has mounted a force of 40,000 mostly unarmed troops and police for the pullout.

Thousands of Palestinian security forces have also been deployed around the Gaza Strip, stronghold of the radical Hamas movement and home to 1.3 million mainly impoverished Palestinians.

Sharon has argued that the Gaza pullout will enable Israel to keep hold of its large West Bank settlements by easing international pressure for a more comprehensive pullout.

He made clear that the settlement programme would continue unabated on land the Palestinians see as an integral part of their promised future state.

"Settlement is a serious programme that will continue and develop," he said.