Settlers Served Notice In Gaza

Defiant and tearful Jewish settlers locked the gates to their communities, formed human chains and burned tires to block troops from delivering eviction notices Monday, as Israel began its historic pullout from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation.

Police and soldiers waited patiently in the sweltering sun and avoided confrontation at the behest of their commanders. In one scene, a sobbing settler pleaded with a brigadier general not to evict him before the two men embraced.

The Israeli army expects that about half of the 8,000 settlers living in the Gaza Strip will obey the evacuation order and leave voluntarily before the midnight deadline on Tuesday, CBS News Correspondent David Martin reports.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a nationally televised address, called the Gaza pullout a painful but essential step for Israel's future. He urged the Palestinians to control their extremists, saying: "To an outstretched hand of peace we will respond with an olive branch but expressions of terror will be met by fire more intense than ever."

Sharon spent most of his career as a champion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. As recently as two years ago, he said Israel would not give up even small, isolated Gaza settlements.

"But the changing reality in the nation, region and world made me change my mind and change my position," Sharon said. "We cannot hold Gaza for good. More than a million Palestinians live there, doubling their numbers every generation."

Over the next three weeks, Israel plans to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank. The withdrawal marks the first time Israel will dismantle settlements in areas captured in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.

"If we use Gaza as a starting point, as a launching point in order to move ahead rapidly, then we will have won the day and peace will be on its way," Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi told CBS Radio News. "If it is only a one-time unilateral thing and the West Bank becomes the price, then certainly the chances of peace will be severely undermined."

Palestinian Leader: 'A Good Start'

More than 50,000 soldiers have been training for months to prepare for the Israeli government's plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians.

And although a majority of Israelis support the withdrawal, Martin reports, it has bitterly divided the country.

While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the pullout will improve Israel's security, Jewish settlers fiercely oppose the plan and have promised stiff, but nonviolent resistance.

"[Sharon] lied to the people," Neve Dekalim resident Rachel Saperstein told CBS News. Saperstein, a New Yorker who moved to Israel over 40 years ago, vowed to stay in her home until soldiers forcibly removed her.

"I think this resistance is largely symbolic. They're basically trying to express a point," reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger from the settlement Kvar Deroam. "The ones who are staying are religious, they're ideological, they believe that this land was given by God to the Jewish people."

Monday was the first day of a 48-hour grace period during which settlers can leave voluntarily without losing any of their government compensation. It became illegal for Israelis to live in Gaza at midnight Sunday, and on Wednesday troops will begin dragging out settlers by force.

In Gaza City, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas set Jan. 21 as the date for long-delayed legislative elections.

The order was meant to show that the Palestinians are on the road to establishing a democracy, said Saeb Erekat, a government spokesman. "Those who want to seek power need to do so through the ballot box, not bullets," he said.

The elections were originally scheduled for July 17. Palestinian officials said the delay was for technical reasons, but the militant group Hamas has accused Abbas of seeking time to shore up support for his embattled Fatah party. Hamas still plans on participating in the January vote.

Hamas activists in Gaza City hung banners Monday proclaiming the pullout is a result of attacks by militants on Israelis. "The blood of martyrs has led to liberation," one banner said.

But the group said it had no plans to carry out attacks during the Israeli withdrawal. "If the Israelis evacuate the Gaza Strip quietly, I think there is no single person among our people who will obstruct or violate this evacuation," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Israeli troops fired in the air Monday to keep back hundreds of Palestinians, including a few dozen masked gunmen, who marched toward southern Gaza's Gush Katif bloc of settlements in celebration of the impending withdrawal. The crowd burned a cardboard model of an Israeli settlement, complete with an army watchtower.

Thousands of Israeli troops fanned out throughout Gaza, delivering eviction notices in six settlements, but encountering protests in others. The notices gave settlers until midnight Tuesday to leave. If they ignore the deadline, they will be removed by force and could lose up to a third of government compensation.

Resistance was stiff in Gush Katif. Hundreds of settlers blocked the gates of Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement, to prevent the forces from entering.

"This morning, the people stood up to the police and it was a victory. Now the (shipping) containers are coming in. It is heartbreaking and negative," said Yosef Meron, 68, of Neve Dekalim.

Military commanders listened to the settlers' appeals, but said they would not be deterred.

Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, Israel's commander over the Gaza region, said the operation was going as anticipated. "Our estimation is that by tomorrow night most of the residents will agree to leave," he said.

Harel attempted to talk to residents of Neve Dekalim, but was whisked away by police after he was confronted by angry settlers.

"There is a huge force of about 55,000 soldiers and police that are going to carry out this pullout, and that's against around 10,000 settlers — 8,500 live in Gaza. About half of them have left, but others have come in from the West Bank as reinforcements," said Berger.

Soldiers were also giving eviction notices in four West Bank settlements slated for evacuation. They chose not to enter two of the communities, Sanur and Homesh, where hard-line extremists have holed up. The army instead planned to hand the orders to community leaders.

Israel's Cabinet met Monday and gave final approval for the removal of additional Gaza settlements in what was seen as a formality.

With some 50,000 security forces involved, the "disengagement" from Gaza is the nation's largest-ever noncombat operation.

Abbas on Monday issued a statement praising the pullout but said it must be followed by more.

"The Israeli withdrawal which starts today is a very important and historical step, but it is an initial step that should take place not only in Gaza, but in the West Bank and East Jerusalem," he said.

The Palestinians fear the withdrawal is a ploy by Sharon to get rid of areas he doesn't consider crucial to Israel while consolidating control of parts of the West Bank, where the vast majority of the 240,000 Jewish settlers live.