Sanur, West Bank – Thousands of troops pushed into two West Bank settlements today to clear out about 2,000 extremists determined to foil the last stage of Israel’s historic “disengagement” from the West Bank and Gaza.
The West Bank showdown came just hours after the last settlers left Gaza tearfully but peacefully.
At the start of today’s eviction, military bulldozers tore down the gates of the Homesh and Sanur settlements. Militants in both strongholds have hoarded firebombs and stun grenades, and in Homesh two army deserters with army-issue weapons were believed inside, police said.
Riot police with clubs and shields marched toward Sanur, led by officers on horseback, all-terrain vehicles and water cannons. At the gate to Sanur, masked youths wearing fringed prayer garments set fire to barricades of tires and mattresses. On a rooftop in Sanur, a man in religious dress blew a ram’s horn as an appeal to God.
Security forces have said they expect the evacuation of Sanur and Homesh to be the most difficult operation of the Israeli pullout. About 10,000 troops have been mobilized to clear out the two settlements, where the withdrawal is being resisted overwhelmingly by militants from outside the communities, many of them West Bank youths known for extremism and rejection of the Israeli government’s authority.
On Monday, holding their Torah scrolls aloft and weeping, the last Jewish settlers left the Gaza Strip, fulfilling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s vow to end the more than three-decade-old settlement enterprise he had pioneered in the seaside territory.
The nearly 500 residents of Netzarim, together with dozens of youthful supporters from outside their community, rolled out of their isolated, heavily guarded enclave for the last time in their customary mode of transport: bulletproof buses, which for years had protected residents against attacks by Palestinian militants.
A convoy of private cars, overstuffed with hastily packed belongings, followed behind.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
