West Bank Settlement Clearing Begins
23/08/2005| IslamWeb
Israeli forces have barged through barbed wire and burning barricades to clear settlers from the northern West Bank after completing the pullout from the Gaza Strip.
An estimated 5000 troops and police were bracing themselves for a violent showdown on Tuesday in what is the first ever expulsion of Israelis from part of land regarded by Jews as northern Samaria, the heart of biblical Israel.
Police said they believed those inside the two settlements of Sanur and Homesh had massed an arsenal of stones, sharp metal projectiles, knives, stun grenades, oil to pour on the road and possibly pistols.
After sunrise on Tuesday, border police burst through burning barricades and cut through rolls of barbed wire at the entrance to Homesh before pushing into the enclave.
In neighbouring Sanur, hundreds of police and soldiers cut through the barbed wire perimeter fence before a bulldozer smashed through the metal gate and troops began putting out barricades torched by a gang of masked youths.
Dangerous phase
The West Bank episode threatened to be the toughest and most dangerous phase. Even before the soldiers moved in, there were violent incidents.
Around midnight, troops stopped 500 settlers from nearby Kedumim from entering the closed area, the military said.
The pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip, which was completed two weeks ahead of schedule on Monday when the hardline community of Netzarim was evacuated, has raised international hopes of a revival of the moribund peace process.
Hate campaign
It is the first time Israel - under the right-wing government of Sharon - has removed Jews from Palestinian land after 38 years of often bloody military occupation.
Yossi Dagan, a spokesman for the settlers in Sanur, had warned of "bloodshed" during Tuesday's operation.
"Soldiers are going to use a lot of violence," he predicted, accusing Sharon of waging a hate campaign against the West Bank settlers.
"It's difficult justifying the evacuation of these settlements, so he tries to make us monsters.
"We are optimistic this evacuation can be stopped."
Police spokesman Shai Itzkovitch said between 600 and 1000 people could now be inside Sanur, which was originally home to just 150.
"We are ready to deal with them and we are negotiating with them so that the withdrawal can be completed peacefully and quietly. If they have pistols, we are negotiating for them to give them up, but we are ready for all eventualities."
Anti-Sharon graffiti
In Homesh, youths had prepared for the arrival of the soldiers by blocking front doors of already empty homes with rubble and stacking up piles of broken tiles on balconies to use as ammunition.
Graffiti covered the walls. "Sharon is a traitor," read one slogan, while another proclaimed: "A Jew does not expel a Jew."
Such taunts were heard frequently during the evacuation operation in the Gaza Strip where violence was restricted to only a handful of settlements.
French Journalist Freed
On Monday, a French television journalist kidnapped at gunpoint more than a week ago, was freed.
Mohamed Ouathi, 46, walked into a police station in Gaza, eight days after he was seized by three armed men who forced him into a car as he walked to his hotel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping and no apparent motive.
Ouathi had worked at the station France-3 since 1994.
Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based press watchdog group, noted that the kidnappers wore no blindfolds and said that showed "that a certain climate of impunity" reigns in Gaza.
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