Deadline expires, evacuation by force begins

ESHKOL (Israel, bordering Gaza), Wednesday (Xinhua) Thousands of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops flooded the biggest Gaza settlement of Neveh Dekalim as the Tuesday midnight deadline for voluntary evacuation expired. Senior IDF officers said late on Tuesday that the evacuation of the key Gaza settlement could be completed in as little as 24 hours. During the night operation, IDF and police were knocking on settlers' homes, asking them to leave peacefully, while others moved past tires set afire by protesters in the streets of the settlement.

Meanwhile, settlers of another settlement Ganei Tal reached an agreement Tuesday evening with the army, who gave them until noontime Wednesday to leave their homes voluntarily. The entry of the troops closely followed an announcement by IDF Major General Dan Harel, overall military commander of Gaza. "In the coming hours we will begin to come to residents, in particular of Neveh Dekalim, and demand that they come out," Harel said.

"We are entering the phase of forced evacuation." As the deadline was near for voluntary evacuation late Tuesday night, a long line of tractors, trucks, armoured bulldozers and buses full of Israeli soldiers lined up on the road to the settlement bloc of Gush Katif.

Senior disengagement official Eival Giladi said earlier in the evening that nearly half of the residents of Gaza Strip settlements have left voluntarily.

"This plan is going as scheduled. Close to 50 percent of the residents have left," Giladi, a reserve brigadier general and chief of coordination and strategy for the Prime Minister's Office, told a briefing for reporters. Early Wednesday troops and police are to begin evacuating the remaining settlers by force, he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of anti-disengagement protesters, setting tires ablaze to block the main street of Neveh Dekalim, clashed with security forces. Police arrested at least 50 youths who scuffled with officers and attempted to prevent the entry of the containers into Neveh Dekalim. One police officer was wounded when settlers threw acetone in his eyes. The youths also assaulted senior army officers and journalists present at the scene, destroying a camera of a Reuters photographer. Two settlers were also lightly wounded during the clashes.

By Tuesday afternoon, police had arrested more than 800 people attempting to infiltrate the Gaza Strip. Police later announced plans to release most of those arrested. But Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday threatened tough action against anyone who tried to disrupt the pullout from the Gaza Strip.

In a broadcast on the Army Radio, he also said to the Palestinians that "I want to tell them not to rush to celebrate."

Israel formally began the pullout operation on Monday morning according to the disengagement plan put forward by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the end of 2003.

According to the plan, Israel will remove all 21 Gaza settlements and four of about 120 in the West Bank. By Tuesday afternoon, the small settlements of Ganim and Kadim in the West Bank were already completely empty, and five to six settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank will complete their voluntary evacuation on Tuesday, it was reported.