Thousands of Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and even a nursery school and hauled them onto buses in a massive evacuation, fulfilling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's promise to end Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, an Israeli woman set herself ablaze at a checkpoint outside the Gaza Strip yesterday in what police called an attempted suicide in protest at Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territory.
Describing the woman as a West Bank settler in her 60s, police spokesman Avi Zelba said she had suffered burns to 60 percent of his body and had been hospitalized.
PHOTO: AFP
"I can confirm that she attempted suicide in light of the disengagement plan," Zelba said.
Thousands of rightists opposed to Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians by quitting Gaza have descended on the area outside the coastal strip to obstruct operations by troops and police.
Forced evacuations began yesterday.
Soldiers carried away worshippers still wrapped in their white prayer shawls. Men ripped their shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual. Women in a synagogue pressed their faces against the curtain covering the Torah scroll.
Others kicked and screamed as they were loaded onto buses and the smell of burning garbage rose in the air.
One woman shouted, "I don't want to, I don't want to," as she was carried away.
Troops also scuffled with protesters in the isolated settlement of Morag, while irate settlers at another outpost employed Nazi-era imagery -- including stars of David on their T-shirts -- to protest the military's actions.
But there were no signs of serious violence, and it appeared many residents were coming to terms with the withdrawal.
"I believed that God would not let this happen, but this is not true," said a Morag woman clutching a baby.
Some 14,000 troops had entered five Jewish settlements -- Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal and Tel Katifa. Security officials said the goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in just a few days, far more quickly than originally planned.
Colonel Israel Ziv, a commander in Neve Dekalim, said about 500 to 600 families were left in the Gaza Strip -- about one-third of the total population -- and that he expected more to leave throughout the day. But thousands of pullout opponents who infiltrated Gaza in recent weeks also remained. Ziv said the army planned to clear out the southern half of Gush Katif, the main bloc of Gaza settlements, yesterday.
One commander of a small army unit, identified only as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged a settler in Neve Dekalim, the largest settlement.
"It's not easy. These are very special people. This is the salt of the earth," he said. "But we have a mission and we will carry it out, and I think these people understand that."
Sharon said that the images of Gaza settlers being removed from their homes are "heartbreaking," and praised the restraint of both settlers and soldiers.
"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes," he said.
Sharon appealed to pullout opponents to avoid physical and verbal confrontation with the security forces.
"Attack me, I am responsible for this, attack me, accuse me, don't attack the men and women in uniform," he said.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who sat next to Sharon, cut in to correct the prime minister's choice of words.
"You mean criticize, not attack," Katsav admonished. Sharon did not respond.
Some teenage activists showed fierce resistance. Troops dragged flailing protesters, some as young as 12, onto the buses.
"I want to die," screamed one youth as he was hauled away.
Several soldiers were hit by white paint bombs, and protesters smashed the window of the bus.
Settlers were being removed at a rapid pace, with soldiers bundling them onto buses one after the other. About 10 buses filled with protesters drove away, the army said.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Neve Dekalim's main synagogue for morning prayers early yesterday, clapping and singing songs that expulsion would not happen. Several youngsters climbed onto the roof of the building, while others formed circles or milled about in the courtyard. "You should be ashamed at what you are doing," screamed a woman who was pushing a baby stroller.
Inside the synagogue, hundreds chanted and clapped as a Torah scroll was carried into the synagogue. At midmorning, the building remained packed with protesters. "I believe in the messiah," sang a group of teenage girls.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS