Israeli forces storm Gaza Synagogues
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-19 05:47

"We won't be moved from the Land of Israel," shrieked a bearded man in a prayer shawl who tied himself to a staircase and had to be cut down and carried away by soldiers. Rightist Jews believe Gaza is part of Israel's biblical birthright.

Despite pockets of resistance, the evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank under Sharon's plan for reducing conflict with Palestinians was moving ahead much faster than expected. Soldiers in Kfar Darom found themselves bursting in on a birthday party for a baby girl in a pink dress when they came to evacuate one family.

Troops also dragged away a soldier who refused to take part in the operation - the first such mutiny since the start of a forced evacuation of Gaza settlements under Sharon's "disengagement" plan.

In increasingly chaotic scenes, a red-roofed villa was set ablaze in the main Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim, and a man saying he was armed stood on a rooftop in a seaside enclave and threatened to shoot if anyone tried to remove him.

Another tense situation appeared to be ending peacefully as Israeli forces entered the beachfront stronghold of Shirat Hayam.

Israeli officials said the Gaza withdrawal would be completed by Tuesday, taking less than half as long as the most optimistic earlier predictions.

The removal of Gaza settlements, where 8,500 Jews lived isolated from 1.4 million Palestinians, marks the first uprooting of enclaves on land the Palestinians want as part of a Palestinian state.