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Israeli army completes evacuation of Neve Dekalim


Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

Israeli troops in showdown with hardcore Gaza settlers

Neve Dekalim Settlement, Gaza Strip / AFP
08/19/2005

The Israeli army has completed the evacuation of Gaza 's Neve Dekalim settlement, an army spokesman said early on Friday.
"We completed on Thursday evening the evacuation of the Neve Dekalim settlers," the spokesman told AFP.

"In all we evacuated 1,850 Neve Dekalim inhabitants, after having managed to remove several hundred militants who had taken refuge in the settlement's synagogue (complex)," he said. Neve Dekalim is considered the capital of the Gaza Strip settlements.

Earlier hundreds of Jews had taken refuge in a synagogue complex in a bid to beat the Gaza Strip expulsion order issued by their former champion Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, believing police would never storm a holy place.
The first column of security forces had surged into the three-synagogue complex at around 3:40 pm (1240 GMT) on Thursday, breaking through protestors' human chains.

The decision to move into the synagogue complex came swiftly after the expiry of a police deadline for voluntary evacuation even after local rabbi Hanan Porat had gone out personally to try to persuade police commander Uri Bar Lev not to launch a raid.

The spokesman said that on Thursday Israeli forces also managed to evacuate almost all the inhabitants of the Kfar Yam, Shirat Yam, Netzer Hazani, Ganor and Kfar Darom settlements.

"Only a few isolated families have been authorised to stay there temporarily," the spokesman said.
A military source said that the occupants of 16 of the Gaza Strip's 21 settlements have been evacuated, with only some 25 percent of the 8,000 settlers remaining.
The military source said that Israeli army bulldozers would start to destroy the vacated houses on Sunday.

Palestinians have welcomed the Gaza pullout as a victory for the resistance to four decades of Israeli occupation, while the international community hopes it will mark a new page in efforts to bring peace to the Middle East .

Earlier the commander of the pullout operation said Israeli forces will not evacuate any settlers from the Gaza Strip during the Jewish weekend.