MIDDLE EAST: Resistance to the Gaza pull-out is being led by young non-residents, writes Nuala Haughy in Gush Katif
Israeli teenagers determined to flout the military order to evacuate Gaza's settlements by today flocked to Neveh Dekalim's main synagogue last night, piling their rucksacks high in its internal open-air courtyard.
They have stockpiled water and tinned goods and are fortified by their youthful fervour and an abiding religious conviction that their government has no right to hand to the Palestinians this land which they regard as a biblical birthright.
"We believe that God will decide what to do," said Naama Neuberger, a rosy-cheeked 20-year-old as she made her way into the synagogue carrying a large rucksack.
"I think that God will help us to talk to the soldiers and show our feelings. I hope that we will be forever in this place [ Gaza]."
Naama, who is from the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Araba near Hebron, is among an estimated 5,000 people - including religious extremists - who have illegally infiltrated Gaza's settlements in the weeks prior to their scheduled dismantling.
The pony-tailed teenage girls and the boys with their knitted skull caps spent most of yesterday chasing after the troops who forced their way into Neveh Dekalim in the early hours after sawing through its main gates. The girls, their faces red and wet with hot tears, mostly pleaded in vain with the police and soldiers who were escorting removal vans and helping residents preparing to evacuate this settlement, by far the largest in the Strip with some 2,500 residents.
But some of the excitable youths scuffled with the paramilitary police in black boiler suits who attempted to clear them off the main road to allow the entry of large shipping containers which residents had ordered.
Youths blocked the main street of the settlement with burning tyres and large rubbish skips in which fires had been set. Police arrested at least 50 youths who clashed with officers, carrying them away kicking and screaming. All of them were non-residents of the Strip.
One police officer was wounded when settlers threw an unidentified substance in his eyes during scuffles. The officer began shouting, "I can't see." About 150 metres away, a collection of plastic bags and water bottles filled with an ammonia mix were piled up on a kerbside.
As large numbers of Israeli police and soldiers poured into the settlement last night ahead of the midnight deadline for evacuation, the youths gathering on the lawns outside the synagogue set ablaze rubbish in industrial size wheelie bins on the road and the atmosphere again turned tense.
Many settlers in Neveh Dekalim busied themselves yesterday removing fittings from the red-roofed villas and loading their furniture on to large shipping containers ahead of the midnight departure deadline.
Settler leaders expect about half the Strip's 1,700 Israeli families to be gone by today, with those remaining facing forcible eviction at the hand of some 52,000 unarmed soldiers and police.
As the intense heat of the day subsided, Ayelet Kadosh, a 24-year-old law student, drove out of the settlement for the last time with her mother and two sisters.
Her father and brother will stay behind until they are evicted. "They feel they need to see with their own eyes that it actually happens," she explained.
She said the departure was difficult. "It's sad. I've lived here 18 years. My two little sisters were born here. My mother built it almost with her own hands."
Meanwhile, outside the main synagogue, a large and rowdy crowd had rallied, chanting and singing religious songs, as the sun went down on this part of the Zionist enterprise.