MIDDLE EAST: Israeli troops have almost completed the evacuation of all Jewish settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip and will this week move to clear four settlements in the West Bank, where security forces expect to encounter the fiercest resistance to date, writes Nuala Haughey in Jerusalem
The last of Gaza's 21 settlements, Netzarim, is to be evacuated today, and security forces at the weekend started to demolish houses prior to the handover of the coastal strip to its 1.2 million Palestinian residents in the coming weeks.
The operation to evict the strip's 8,000 Jewish residents and up to 5,000 infiltrating supporters will be compressed into less than a week - far shorter than the three weeks the security forces originally foresaw, and with less violence than expected.
Some of the evicted settlers spent the weekend settling into temporary accommodation in hotels or purpose-built luxury trailers on the Mediterranean coast. Others were already in their new long-term homes in kibbutzim and towns inside Israel.
Some evacuees have resettled in temporary housing in West Bank settlements, which along with Gaza form the Israeli-occupied territory Palestinians want for a future state.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers continued to meet resistance from settlers in the four Gaza settlements they entered yesterday, the fourth day of forced evictions, following a break for the Jewish Sabbath.
However, the clashes were not as violent as those witnessed in the isolated hardline Kfar Darom settlement last Thursday, when demonstrators barricaded themselves on the roof of a synagogue and attacked soldiers and police, pouring acid-like substances on them.
Thousands of soldiers who entered the Katif settlement in Gaza yesterday were met by blazing barricades, pleading settlers and a mock cemetery built "for anyone who expels Jews from their homes".
In comments at the start of yesterday's weekly cabinet meeting, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, described acts of violent resistance to the pull-out as "hooliganism" and accused settler leaders of exploiting the suffering of their followers to push a political agenda.
In an unusual move, Mr Sharon is due to address the United Nations General Assembly next month to garner support for his planned "disengagement" from Palestinians by relinquishing Gaza, which Israel has occupied for 38 years, as well as from four small isolated settlements close to large Palestinian towns in the northern West Bank.
Israel views the United Nations as hostile and for decades the international body has criticised the Jewish state for its policies in the occupied territories.
Mr Sharon twice last week made televised public addresses to defend his plan, which he sees as vital to Israel's security and a way to ensure its future viability as a majority Jewish state.
Facing opposition within his Likud party and a likely leadership challenge from his former finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Sharon said last week he has no plans to evacuate other settlements in the West Bank, where some 240,000 settlers live. This stance puts him at odds with the US, which hopes Israel's unilateral relinquishing of territory it has occupied since 1967 might reinvigorate the moribund peace process with the Palestinians and lead to more Israeli concessions.
Security officials expect violent resistance during the forcible eviction this week of residents of the West Bank settlements of Sanur and Homesh, where some 2,000 anti-pull-out opponents are camped out, preparing for a fight.
Extremists exchanged blows with soldiers preparing for the evacuation of Sanur and Homesh yesterday and slashed the tyres of army jeeps. One soldier was slightly wounded.
"We expect harsh resistance there," said Israeli army spokeswoman Maj Sharon Feingold. "We know that some of them are armed, and we're still in dialogue with them."
The authorities are also concerned that the settlers might turn their anger on residents of nearby Arab villages less than a week after a West Bank settler opposed to the disengagement shot dead four Palestinians.
Ultra-right religious leaders, who view the West Bank as part of the biblical region of Samaria, yesterday urged settlers to infiltrate Sanur and Homesh, which have been sealed off by the army in preparation for their expected evacuation on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, some 200 members of the Palestinians' ruling Fatah party, armed with assault rifles, converged on Gaza City's parliament building yesterday to demand jobs in a protest which underlined challenges ahead for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in maintaining stability.
Mr Abbas faces a serious political challenge from the hugely popular Islamic resistance movement Hamas, which is expected to make significant gains in parliamentary elections next January.