Gaza cleared of settlers

Members of the Palestinian police deploy close to the Jewish settlements of Sanur and Homesh which were evacuated by Israeli army yesterday. Palestinian security forces erected several checkpoints around the Jenin area of the northern West Bank in a bid to prevent Palestinian militant attacks during the Israeli pullout from the area. PHOTO: AFP

More than 5,000 troops, meanwhile, headed to two militant West Bank settlements slated to be evacuated today. Security forces braced for a possible confrontation, saying some 2,000 ultranationalist youths holed up there planned to resist violently. Security officials said militants had hoarded stun grenades and tear gas canisters and planned to hurl burning tires onto rivers of cooking oil.

In Netzarim, the approximately 600 residents of the farming community, one of Gaza's first settlements, were not expected to put up a fight after reaching an agreement with the military on a quiet departure. After midday prayers, Netzarim settlers were to drive out of Gaza in more than 30 armoured buses and head to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest shrine.

On Monday morning, workers removed a Jewish candelabra, or menorah, from the roof of the synagogue before troops entered in large numbers and told residents and an unknown number of sympathisers it was time to go.

"We need a miracle so that we might stay here again tonight," said Jonathan Weinberg, 21, who came to Netzarim from the West Bank settlement of Hashmonaim to reinforce the settlers here.

Some residents found solace in continuing with their everyday lives. Workers poured concrete to create a foundation for the roof of the Meshulami family's new house.

"As long as the state of Israel hasn't left here, we need to continue with the little bit of life that we have left," Netzarim's secretary, Eliahu Uzan, told Channel 1 TV. "We just have to continue."

Shlomo Keshet, a resident of Netzarim and the father of five, was packing car seats into the family van and preparing to relocate to a dormitory in a college in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Residents, he said, agreed not to resist evacuation violently.

Netzarim, on the outskirts of Gaza City, has been the target of frequent attacks by Palestinian militants and was one of the coastal strip's most hardline and isolated settlements.