Gaza Evictions 'Heartbreaking'

The forcible evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip has begun, with some protesters being loaded into buses Wednesday, and others being carried out of their homes by Israeli soldiers.

As Israeli troops carried out orders on what is intended to be a dramatic step towards peace, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised restraint by settlers and soldiers and called the images of settlers being removed from their homes "heartbreaking."

"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes," said Sharon.

Sharon appealed to pullout opponents to avoid physical and verbal confrontation with the security forces.

"Attack me, I am responsible for this, attack me, accuse me, don't attack the men and women in uniform," he said.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who sat next to Sharon, cut in to correct the prime minister's choice of words. "You mean criticize, not attack," Katsav admonished. Sharon did not respond.

Israeli security forces have warned that Sharon, like his slain predecessor Yitzhak Rabin, could be targeted by extremists.

Sharon defended his decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, saying he did it for the good of Israel.

"I believe with all these difficulties, Israel will come out stronger," he said.

Early Wednesday, as the deadline for voluntary withdrawal from Gaza passed, Israeli troops broke through a makeshift barricade in the Jewish settlement of Morag and hauled away protesters.

Israeli troops also marched into the settlements of Neve Dekalim, Bedolah and Ganei Tal.

At Neve Dekalim, the largest settlement, hundreds of troops escorted by bulldozers marched in formation as settlers set dumpsters on fire outside the settlement's synagogue.

In the Neve Dekalim, a young woman was carried by four women soldiers as she shouted, "I don't want to, I don't want to." The women carried her to a bus that was to drive the settlers away, but they had trouble carrying her up the steps into the bus.

The young woman, Hadas, crossed her arms, and it took soldiers several minutes before she was lifted feet first into the bus.

In Morag, soldiers carried out settlers who had taken refuge in a synagogue, while nearby, settlers climbed onto rooftops and protesters at the entrance set up makeshift barricades with overturned garbage containers, shrubbery and rocks. Troops formed a human chain and pushed protesters back.

Troops also marched in formation through the Ganei Tal settlement, though the army said its residents are expected to leave voluntarily by the end of the day.

The confirmation from military spokesmen came as hundreds of troops, escorted by bulldozers, walked through Gaza's largest settlement, Neve Dekalim, to begin the forcible removals. Settlers set dumpsters on fire outside the settlement's synagogue in an attempt to block the troops.

"Our forces are entering Neve Dekalim and several other settlements," said the military commander of the Gaza sector, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel. "We will take this slowly. We hope that at the end of the day, we will still be strong."

CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports that most of the soldiers are not carrying weapons. They intend to overwhelm any resistance with sheer numbers: for every protestor or settler, there are also five policeman or soldiers.

Police said knots of demonstrators blocked road junctions in southern Israel and were dispersed. More than a dozen were detained for defying police orders to leave.

Jewish settlers have vowed to resist the pullout peacefully. But officials estimate Jewish extremists from outside Gaza, many of them fervently religious teenagers, have infiltrated the settlements in recent weeks.

But not all are teenagers.

"I'm a 64-year-old grandmother. I have nine grandchildren and they're going to have to take me out bodily," Rachel Saperstein told CBS News. "This is one grandma who is not going to go quietly."

Once Gaza is cleared of Jewish settlers - which could take as long as three weeks - it will take several weeks more before Israel finishes dismantling its military installations and relinquishes the coastal strip to Palestinian control, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's historic plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians.

The first Israeli military convoy left a huge staging area at dawn Wednesday, a long line of over a hundred vehicles moving toward the main crossing point into the Gush Katif bloc of settlements.

On the last day in Gaza, many Jewish settlers held tearful ceremonies of farewell to farms and gardens they had fashioned from sand and scrub. Religious settlers called it a "funeral."

Moments before the midnight deadline, settlers were in synagogues in several of the 21 Gaza communities, dancing around sacred Torah scrolls, waving flags and singing nationalist songs in a show of defiance against Sharon's plan to unilaterally hand over the territory to Palestinian control.

Israeli officials said about half of the 1,600 families who lived in Gaza left voluntarily before time ran out, packing their belongings into huge container trucks. At least three settlements were totally abandoned, and several more were nearly deserted.

But a determined throng of settlers refused to leave, and waited for troops to physically haul them away.

Police and army troops blocked roads to Gaza to prevent anti-withdrawal protesters from reaching the territory. An estimated 5,000 have slipped into the area in recent weeks.

Demonstrators hurled stones, eggs and empty bottles Tuesday at soldiers and tried to block moving trucks sent by the army to help settlers who wanted to leave voluntarily.

Smoke from burning tires blackened the air above Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement and the epicenter of defiance.

Settlers in several farming communities, in a final protest, burned their greenhouses and homes rather than leave them behind.

By nightfall Tuesday, three settlements - Dugit, Peat Sadeh and Rafiah Yam - were abandoned, and most residents had left three others. Several others were thinning out.

CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports the number expected to still be in the settlements at midnight was estimated at about 10,000 people: 4,000 Gaza residents and the rest supporters who came from outside.

The military commander of the Gaza sector, Brig. Gen. Dan Harel, said the army had been working with the Palestinian Authority on the evacuation and the "cooperation is very good." At Israel's request, according to Harel, Palestinian police dispersed several marches that were threatening to move toward Israeli positions.

The level of Palestinian attacks had fallen sharply, he said, with only three incidents recorded since the evacuation began on Monday. No one was hurt in any of those.

Palestinians held noisy demonstrations in Gaza City to celebrate the Israeli pullout. Young men cruised the city in open cars, some firing rifles into the air and brandishing rocket launchers.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called a meeting of leaders from the mainstream Fatah faction and the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups to coordinate their plans once the Israelis leave.