Thousands of troops poured into four Gaza settlements yesterday -- the final phase of removing settlers from the coastal strip -- and were met by blazing barricades, pleading settlers and a mock cemetery built "for anyone who expels Jews from their homes."
Israel's Cabinet, meanwhile, gave final approval to the evacuation of the last seven of 25 Gaza and West Bank settlements marked for dismantling.
In the West Bank, extremists exchanged blows with soldiers and slashed tires of army jeeps near Sanur, one of the enclaves to be dismantled later this week. The clashes gave a foretaste of violent confrontations expected when the evacuations move to the West Bank.
In comments at the start of a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called acts of violent resistance to the pullout "hooliganism" and said Jewish settler leaders -- once his friends and allies -- were exploiting the suffering of their followers to push a political agenda.
The forcible removal of settlers in 21 Gaza communities began Wednesday, more than a year after Sharon concluded that Israel could no longer defend its 38-year-old occupation of the coastal strip, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state. The evacuations have proceeded with relatively little violence.
Katif, Atzmona and Slav -- the remaining communities in the main settlement bloc, Gush Katif -- were being emptied yesterday, as was the northern Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai.
The last of the 21 Gaza settlements, Netzarim, is to be evacuated Monday, with the entire Gaza evacuation compressed into just one week, far shorter than the three weeks security forces foresaw.
In Katif, an Israeli army bulldozer broke through the locked gates of the community yesterday to clear a blazing fire of hay, tire and wooden planks so troops could move freely.
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