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Gaza Settlers, Soldiers Face Off

Defiant and tearful Jewish settlers locked their communities' gates and formed human chains to block troops from delivering eviction notices Monday, as Israel began its historic pullout from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation — its largest-ever non-combat operation.

Police and soldiers waited patiently in the sweltering sun and avoided confrontation at the behest of their commanders. One sobbing settler pleaded with a brigadier general not to evict him before the two men embraced.

"It's a painful and difficult day, but it's a historic day," said Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz.

Over the next three weeks, Israel plans to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank. The withdrawal marks the first time Israel will dismantle settlements in areas captured in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.

While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the pullout will improve Israel's security, Jewish settlers fiercely oppose the plan and have promised stiff — but nonviolent — resistance.

"I think this resistance is largely symbolic," reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger from the settlement Kvar Deroam. "They're basically trying to express a point."

Israeli troops fired in the air Monday to keep back hundreds of Palestinians, including a few dozen masked gunmen, who were marching toward southern Gaza's Gush Katif bloc of settlements in celebration of the impending withdrawal. The crowd burned a cardboard model of an Israeli settlement, complete with an army watchtower.

In Gaza City, the Islamic militant group Hamas hung banners proclaiming the pullout is a result of attacks by militants on Israelis. "The blood of martyrs has led to liberation," one banner said.

Thousands of Israeli troops marched into Gaza's settlements, delivering eviction notices in some communities, but encountering protests in others. The notices gave settlers until midnight Tuesday to leave. If they ignore the deadline, they will be removed by force and could lose up to a third of their government compensation for the move.

"There is a huge force of about 55,000 soldiers and police that are going to carry out this pullout, and that's against around 10,000 settlers — 8,500 live in Gaza. About half of them have left, but others have come in from the West Bank as reinforcements," said Berger.

Resistance was stiff in Gush Katif. Hundreds of settlers blocked the gates of Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement, preventing the forces from entering. Later, however, a long convoy of moving trucks drove into the settlement, signaling that despite their pledge to resist evacuation, many of the Neve Dekalim residents planned to get out before the deadline and avoid confrontations with troops.

"The ones who are staying are religious, they're ideological, they believe that this land was given by God to the Jewish people," says Berger.

Dozens of observant Jewish men, wearing white prayer shawls, held morning prayers at the gate, appealing for divine intervention to block the withdrawal. Dozens of youths wearing orange, the color of defiance, sat on the streets. "Who dares to do battle with God?" read one protester's T-shirt.

Troops moved into the community through a second entrance, only to be blocked by large crowds of settlers who burned tires and formed human chains. Protesters formed a ring around the troops, briefly scuffling with one commander who attempted to break through before giving up. The army did not try to force its way in.
Military commanders listened quietly to the settlers' appeals, but said they would not be deterred.

"We will reach every settler, just as we have planned," said Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, Israel's commander over the Gaza region.

Harel told Army Radio that the operation was going as anticipated. "Our estimation is that by tomorrow night most of the residents will agree to leave," he said.

At the isolated Morag settlement, hundreds of people blocked troops at the gate. One man, identified by Israeli media as Liron Zeidan, burst into tears as he pleaded with officers not to remove him from his home.

"I am not your enemy. I served as an officer under you," the man told Brig. Gen. Erez Zuckerman, the commander of the army unit waiting at the gate.

Zuckerman listened and wiped sweat off his brow, then hugged the young man. "We love you, you are part of us," he told the assembled settlers.

In Gan Or, the army reached a deal with residents to send only a small group of senior officers to give the notices to community leaders in an effort to avoid friction.

The operation went more smoothly in the settlements of Nissanit and Elei Sinai, secular communities in northern Gaza that have virtually emptied out.

In Nissanit, four soldiers came to the home of Yitzhak and Avigail Dadon, a couple in their 70s who said they would leave before the forcible removal begins. Yitzhak Dadon said that earlier in the morning, he lowered an Israeli flag that had been fluttering from his roof. Avigail Dadon cried, and a female soldier stood up to hug her.

Soldiers also helped settlers pack. In one Nissanit home, troops removed a large sundeck next to a backyard swimming pool, pulling out planks and stacking them up in a pile.
Soldiers were also giving eviction notices in four West Bank settlements slated for evacuation. They chose not to enter two of the communities, Sanur and Homesh, where hard-line extremists have holed up. The army instead planned to hand the orders to community leaders.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Gaza pullout is a "historical moment," but that Israel must also hand over the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the future.

"If they want peace, they must allow Palestinians to achieve their rights," Abbas told the British Broadcasting Corp.

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