Push Comes To Shove In Gaza

Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind barbed wire in hard-line Jewish settlement synagogues Thursday, as security forces dragged screaming residents out of homes.

In Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest Jewish settlement, hundreds of police and soldiers were preparing to evacuate the synagogue, the last bastion of settler resistance there. CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports the troops faced off with hundreds of young settlers singing Zionist songs.

Settlers elsewhere burned houses, fields and tires in protest.

The presence of four settlers with weapons at one settlement forced troops to postpone that outpost's evacuation and send in negotiators.

On the second day of the forced evacuation of Gaza, troops encountered stiffer resistance than at the start of the operation Wednesday. But security officials said they expected to clear out all 21 Gaza settlements by Tuesday, more than two weeks ahead of schedule.

CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports Israeli officials say the eviction of settlers and their supporters is going more smoothly than expected, but it hasn't been easy, for the settlers losing their homes, or for the soldiers sent to remove them.

"They don't understand why the government is doing that to them. There is no peace agreement, there is no promise that the terror will stop, there is no promise that this is the last withdrawal," member of parliament Yuli Edelstein told Berger.

On Thursday, troops entered several of the most hard-line Gaza communities.

In the farming settlement of Netzer Hazani, protesters set fire to barricades, fields and houses, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air. Youths in Shirat Hayam, a hard-line beachfront outpost, burned tires and garbage. In Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement, a standoff with hundreds of teenage extremists continued into a second day.

There was relatively little violence in Gaza on Wednesday — though a Jewish extremist in the West Bank shot dead four Palestinians in an apparent attempt to disrupt the Gaza pullout.

In Kfar Darom, where protesters barricaded themselves inside a synagogue, the army set up a special command center, and the army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, personally oversaw the operation. Soldiers formed several cordons around him to shield him from shouting settlers.

Thousands of soldiers had entered the settlement at dawn and quickly encircled the synagogue and two nearby buildings. After failed attempts to negotiate a peaceful surrender, troops began moving into homes.
"Why did you become a soldier, to be in this crazy situation?" screamed a young mother, cradling a baby, as soldiers entered her home.

In another house, a husband and wife lay on the floor, shrieking and clutching their small children. A soldier participating in the evacuation of a religious school suddenly disobeyed orders and was quickly carried away by troops.

Troops also burst into a nursery school crowded with protesters. People sang and danced as the troops entered, and about two dozen young children were playing with toys. Troops quickly cleared out the building.

The fiercest resistance was expected at Kfar Darom's synagogue, where hundreds of protesters on the roof barricaded themselves behind rows of barbed wire.

Moti Cohen, who had come from Jerusalem to be with the settlers, said protesters have hoarded sand bags and cans of foam spray for the confrontation. A large banner draped over the facade read: "For the Lord will not abandon His people or abandon His land."

Residents jeered the forces throughout the day, driving several soldiers to tears. "You're right. Cry like we are crying," shouted one settler who was loaded onto a bus, still wearing his white prayer shawl. By midday, 200 people had been removed, the army said.

Noga Cohen, who had three children maimed in a Palestinian shooting attack on a bus, said Israel was surrendering to Palestinian militants. On the door of her house was a sign. "In the event you knock on the door, you are a direct partner in the most terrible crime in the history of the nation of Israel."

Just a few yards outside Kfar Darom, dozens of Palestinians stood on the roofs of their houses watching the evacuation.

"For the first time in the last few years I'm standing here without any fear that Israelis will shoot at me because their battle today is against themselves," said Mohammed Bashir, a Palestinian farmer.

While most troops focused on Kfar Darom Thursday, they also returned to Neve Dekalim, the focus of evacuation operations on the first day.

About 1,500 outside "reinforcements" — most of them teenage activists from outside the settlement — remained holed up in the synagogue.
"We don't want to use force but if we have to we will," said police spokesman Avi Zelba.

Hundreds of men at the synagogue were praying or readying holy books. Some two dozen had ripped their shirts in a sign of mourning. One of them, Oren Ozeri, said he was praying for a miracle. "This is a war against God. They are desecrating a place holy to God."

Outside, hundreds of troops formed human chains ringing the building. Protesters formed chains of their own opposite the soldiers, in many cases pleading and arguing with them. Some soldiers broke down crying and were escorted by their commanders to a quiet place to calm down.

So far the pullout's worst violence occurred not in Gaza, but in the West Bank. A Jewish settler, apparently despondent over the withdrawal, opened fire at Palestinian workers, killing four.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed his "disengagement plan" two years ago to ease Israel's security burden and help preserve Israel's Jewish character by placing Gaza's 1.3 million Palestinians outside the country's boundaries. Israel has occupied Gaza for 38 years.

The Palestinian Authority and the United States want the pullout to be the beginning of the "road map" peace process, meant to bring about an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks, and some Israelis fear they will resume their violence once the withdrawal is complete.