Atzmona, Gaza Strip – Israel declared Sunday that it had finished evacuating Gaza’s principal block of Jewish settlements, a mainly peaceful process that left one isolated enclave to be emptied.
But confrontation loomed at two small settlements in the northern West Bank, where hundreds of ultranationalist Jewish youths, some heavily armed, had converged in recent days. They engaged in scattered clashes Sunday with troops preparing to start evacuations there this week.
Several senior security officials were quoted by Israeli media as saying they expected the removal of militants from the northern West Bank settlements of Homesh and Sanur to be far more difficult and dangerous for police and soldiers than Thursday’s confrontation between troops and protesters at the settlement of Kfar Darom, the most volatile clash so far in the Gaza pullout.
Finishing the clearing of Gaza’s main settlement block of Gush Katif marked another milestone for security forces engaged in Israel’s largest noncombat military operation ever. The evacuation of Gaza’s 21 settlements, which were home to 8,500 Israelis, and four smaller sites in the West Bank began last week.
“I can declare Gush Katif empty of residents,” Avi Zelba, a spokesman for the Israeli police, said Sunday night after the settlements of Slav, Katif and Atzmona were secured by troops. The soldiers will remain in place for several weeks before Gaza is handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
The only remaining Gaza settlement to be evacuated was Netzarim, a remote community of about 600 people. Israeli reports said its residents had agreed to offer only passive resistance when police and soldiers head in today.
Israeli forces also began in earnest the job of knocking down homes in several Gaza settlements. Clouds of dust and debris rose into the air as bulldozers tore into dozens of houses, some still containing scattered toys and books.
Israelis and Palestinians had agreed beforehand that the settlers’ single-family homes would not meet housing needs in crowded Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority has said it will build high-rise apartment buildings on some of the settlement land.
