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Settlers On Rampage As
Troops Begin Gaza Evacuation

By Tim Butcher in Gush Katif
The Telegraph - UK
7-3-5
 
Israel deployed more than 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers yesterday to dislodge a few dozen mainly young protesters from an abandoned beachside hotel in the Gaza Strip.
 
The huge scale of the operation does not augur well for the planned evacuation in August of Gaza's 21 Jewish communities, when an even greater military effort will be needed to remove 8,000 settlers.
 
Fifteen busloads of police, in black jumpsuits, body armour and helmets, had to be sent in yesterday while soldiers provided perimeter security.
 
Naval boats patrolled off-shore, tanks were redeployed and the Israeli army invoked special powers to make Gush Katif, the main Jewish settlement block in Gaza, a "closed military zone'' for the duration of the operation.
 
The troops and police moved in at dawn after a period of mounting violence, including a shocking incident in which a "lynch mob" of Jewish extremists came close to stoning a Palestinian youth to death.
 
Khaled al-Astal, 16, was hit on the head during a stone-throwing contest between Jewish settlers and a group of Palestinian children and teenagers on Wednesday. While he received treatment from an Israeli soldier, the Jewish extremists attacked him.
 
A witness reported that they shouted, "He is an Arab, kill him'' as they ran towards him carrying large rocks.
 
He owes his life to an Israeli journalist who dragged him to safety under a hail of rocks. The youth was taken to a local Palestinian hospital where his condition last night was serious.
 
The fact that the incident was caught on camera forced Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, on to the defensive. "The attack is a barbaric, wild and heartless act,'' Mr Sharon said. "What is happening in front of our eyes is not a battle over disengagement from Gaza, but a battle over the image of the state.
 
"This is not a situation I will allow to continue. The situation is not lost, and we will win.''
 
Opposition MPs demanded to know why none of the attackers had been arrested even though the incident happened under the noses of well-armed police and soldiers.
 
"When I realised they were going to kill the guy, I had to do something,'' said Itzik Saban, a reporter from the Yedioth Aharonot newspaper.
 
"He was already on the floor when they surrounded him and started throwing rocks at his head and his body.''
 
The incident happened after extremists took over a Palestinian house in the Gush Katif area. The fact that there were no arrests among the Jewish extremist group responsible for the attack prompted criticism from Yossi Sarid, an opposition MP from the Meretz Party. He said the incident showed Israel up as a "pathetic country''.
 
He asked: "Is there any one in the army or in the police who can explain why they were not arrested at the scene?''
 
Gideon Ezra, the public security minister, promised to bring to justice those he described as a "lynch mob''.
 
Settler leaders tried to distance themselves from the extremists, saying they were troublemakers and not genuine members of the settler community.
 
The operation to clear no more than 100 protesters from the ruined Palm Beach Hotel began at dawn, with the first rumours that the army was going to lock down Gush Katif.
 
A large security fence around Gaza means there are only limited access points which are easy for the army to block.
 
In the baking summer heat, tempers soon frayed among Gush Katif residents.
 
"This is my home - why do I have to prove to you that I live here?'' shouted one Jewish settler before he was let through.
 
For years the hotel has been home to a few squatters who surf in the nearby Mediterranean, but in recent weeks it had been taken over by Right-wing Jewish extremists opposed to the Gaza withdrawal.
 
Most were young Jews from other settlements miles away on the West Bank but they came to show solidarity with the settlers of Gaza, promising to disrupt Mr Sharon's disengagement plan, which involves the closure of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the north of the West Bank.
 
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
 
http://telegraph.co.uk

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