Israeli Troops Block Pullout Foes

(AP)  Israeli troops on Wednesday sealed off a cluster of Gaza Strip settlements marked for evacuation to stop the influx of hard-line opponents, the government's most sweeping measure yet to prepare for next month's pullout.

Settlers responded defiantly, threatening to block roads throughout Israel and to step up other protests.

Also Wednesday, Israeli troops reoccupied the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem in response to a suicide bombing that killed four Israeli women in the resort town of Netanya a day earlier.

A firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police in Tulkarem left one police officer dead and a second critically wounded. Soldiers arrested six people, including the father of the bomber.

Palestinian officials strongly condemned the bombing. Palestinian officials, as well as most militant groups, want to maintain calm ahead of Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next month.

In preparation for the pullout, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the settlements closed to all nonresidents. Residents would still be able to move in and out of the settlements freely, the army said.

Soldiers set up roadblocks at the Kissufim crossing into the Gush Katif cluster of settlements in Gaza to enforce the order, causing a traffic jam of settler cars, army trucks and police vehicles. The soldiers turned away anyone without a residence permit.

Some drivers argued, screaming at police that they had driven great distances to be there, but most left quietly.

"It's one of the most painful times, it's terrible," said Hana Picard, 48, a resident of Gush Katif.

In recent months, scores of pullout opponents moved into empty houses and tents in the settlements, and others were planning to march en masse into Gush Katif on Monday and remain there to resist the pullout.

"The (closure) decision was made because of the constant flow of extremists into Gaza in order to be there on D-Day and to try to sabotage the (pullout)," said Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, the regional Israeli army commander.

Settler leader Eran Sternberg called Sharon "a hooligan" and said he was "exploiting the army for a political decision."

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