[Mb-civic] Gaza Withdrawal Begins With Confrontations - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

<>Gaza Withdrawal Begins With Confrontations
Three-Week Operation to Clear Settlements Will Have Little Tolerance for 
Obstruction

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 15, 2005; 7:03 AM

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip Aug. 15-- Thousands of Israeli army troops 
moved into Gaza Monday morning to serve eviction notices on settlers and 
confronted hundreds of opponents blocking their way into communities 
across the coastal strip.

Soldiers had intended to enter 21 Jewish settlements to give residents 
who live in them 48 hours to leave. But in at least five communities 
they were prevented from doing so by young settlers who oppose the 
evacuation.

The confrontations over Israel's disengagement from Gaza were mostly 
peaceful except for scattered scuffles between young men and soldiers. 
In some cases, Army jeeps and police cars were vandalized by mobs of 
opponents, who punctured tires, tore out radios and poured dishwater 
detergent on the vehicles.

Israeli military officials said the resistance was not unexpected but 
warned that starting Wednesday, there would be little tolerance for 
obstruction of the operation designed to clear the settlements over the 
next three weeks.

<>The military is scheduled to evacuate 8,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza, 
which was captured from Egypt in the 1967 war. It is the first 
evacuation of Jewish settlements since the Sinai pullout in 1982.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/15/AR2005081500201.html 

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