August 12 05 Yesha trying to foil pullout .........
Last update - 12:24 12/08/2005
Yesha trying to foil pullout by keeping troops away from Gaza
By Roni Singer and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Yesha Council settler leaders are instructing pullout opponents to drive in convoys to the Kissufim crossing, at the entrance to the Gaza Strip, and prevent security forces from reaching the settlements slated for evacuation.
The directive marks a change in strategy, as settler leaders begin to surrender the dream of bringing tens of thousands into Gush Katif.
One settler leader, Tzvika Bar-Hai, told protesters to make their way to Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip "on Monday by car, by bus, and by foot. We will then leave for the entrances into Gush Katif."
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"We will not be stopped at checkpoints, we will bypass them from the right and from the left," Bar-Hai told approximately 150,000 pullout foes at a protest rally in Tel Aviv on Thursday night. "We will not raise a hand against police and army personnel, we will reach our destination by use of our bodies and with our children. We will not confront anyone."
The demonstrators were given instructions on where to report before heading out in convoys to Gush Katif as soon as the disengagement begins. The four main meeting points will be the Negev towns of Ashkelon, Ofakim, Sderot and Netivot.
42,000 security forces to implement pullout
At midnight on Sunday, the Kissufim crossing will be closed to all Israeli civilian traffic, and on August 15, early Monday morning, a year and a half after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan, the disengagement will begin.
About 42,000 soldiers and police officers, divided into at least five divisional command centers, will be deployed. The total number of people involved in the operation could reach 53,000 if additional units are enlisted.
The official schedule calls for a four-week operation, but unofficially the planners hope three weeks will suffice.
Until the Strip is sealed completely before dawn on Monday, the only Israelis allowed in will be residents of the settlements, providers of essential services - including movers - and rescue service personnel. No visitors will be allowed, even if they are first-degree relatives of settlement residents.
After the Kissufim crossing is closed, only security forces will be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday ceased issuing permits for visits to the Gaza Strip settlements, effectively admitting that it has failed to prevent the permits from being exploited to enable thousands of people to infiltrate from outside Gaza. Security forces estimate that 2,700 right-wing activists have illegally entered the Strip.
On Monday morning, combined teams of soldiers and police officers will fan out into all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and to every home. They will make a record of houses that are already empty, and any remaining residents will be informed that they have 48 hours - until the morning of August 17 - to leave. Anyone who refuses after the deadline will be forcibly removed and also risks losing about 30 percent of their compensation.
From Monday morning to Wednesday morning, the security forces are expecting a massive exodus of Israelis from Gaza - between one-third and two-thirds of the total. The rest will have to be removed by force.
The disengagement forces will be divided into six "rings." The first ring (combining both army and police) will deal with removing the settlers from their homes. The second ring, of Israel Defense Forces soldiers only, is charged with blocking the surrounding roads to prevent anti-withdrawal activists from reaching the settlement being evacuated.
Defending from attack
The third and fourth rings, all army, will defend both civilian and security forces from Palestinian attack. The fifth ring, mostly IDF soldiers, will patrol the Green Line to prevent activists from infiltrating the Strip from Israel. The sixth ring, consisting of police officers, will control traffic on Israeli roads in the western Negev near the Gaza border.
And there is another ring, which no one wants to discuss. It is the "zero ring," which will deal with any violent standoff situations that arise. Brigadier General Amos Ben-Avraham, who is the commander of the division unit for this force, avoids the cameras. Senior officers who were willing to talk about it hope it will not be needed, but they know that is an unreasonable expectation.
The order in which the settlements are to be evacuated will not be determined until Monday morning. Several plans of action are possible, including starting with the "easy" settlements in the north where the least opposition is expected, such as Elei Sinai and Dugit, or with the ideological stronghold of Netzarim.
The combined IDF-police teams that will carry out the evacuation of the homes where residents do not leave voluntarily consist of 17 people each, divided into four smaller groups of four soldiers and one police officer, and one team commander. Each home that will be evacuated has already been assigned to a team, which will be given maps and information on all residents and their expected level of opposition.
One half hour will be budgeted to the evacuation of each home, but team commanders can request an extension if needed.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday gave the final approval to the disengagement plan. In a meeting with senior IDF and police officers, he challenged them to complete the operation in two and a half weeks, by September 4, including the evacuation of the two remaining settlements in the northern Samaria - Sa-Nur and Homesh.
Yesha trying to foil pullout by keeping troops away from Gaza
By Roni Singer and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Yesha Council settler leaders are instructing pullout opponents to drive in convoys to the Kissufim crossing, at the entrance to the Gaza Strip, and prevent security forces from reaching the settlements slated for evacuation.
The directive marks a change in strategy, as settler leaders begin to surrender the dream of bringing tens of thousands into Gush Katif.
One settler leader, Tzvika Bar-Hai, told protesters to make their way to Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip "on Monday by car, by bus, and by foot. We will then leave for the entrances into Gush Katif."
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"We will not be stopped at checkpoints, we will bypass them from the right and from the left," Bar-Hai told approximately 150,000 pullout foes at a protest rally in Tel Aviv on Thursday night. "We will not raise a hand against police and army personnel, we will reach our destination by use of our bodies and with our children. We will not confront anyone."
The demonstrators were given instructions on where to report before heading out in convoys to Gush Katif as soon as the disengagement begins. The four main meeting points will be the Negev towns of Ashkelon, Ofakim, Sderot and Netivot.
42,000 security forces to implement pullout
At midnight on Sunday, the Kissufim crossing will be closed to all Israeli civilian traffic, and on August 15, early Monday morning, a year and a half after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan, the disengagement will begin.
About 42,000 soldiers and police officers, divided into at least five divisional command centers, will be deployed. The total number of people involved in the operation could reach 53,000 if additional units are enlisted.
The official schedule calls for a four-week operation, but unofficially the planners hope three weeks will suffice.
Until the Strip is sealed completely before dawn on Monday, the only Israelis allowed in will be residents of the settlements, providers of essential services - including movers - and rescue service personnel. No visitors will be allowed, even if they are first-degree relatives of settlement residents.
After the Kissufim crossing is closed, only security forces will be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday ceased issuing permits for visits to the Gaza Strip settlements, effectively admitting that it has failed to prevent the permits from being exploited to enable thousands of people to infiltrate from outside Gaza. Security forces estimate that 2,700 right-wing activists have illegally entered the Strip.
On Monday morning, combined teams of soldiers and police officers will fan out into all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and to every home. They will make a record of houses that are already empty, and any remaining residents will be informed that they have 48 hours - until the morning of August 17 - to leave. Anyone who refuses after the deadline will be forcibly removed and also risks losing about 30 percent of their compensation.
From Monday morning to Wednesday morning, the security forces are expecting a massive exodus of Israelis from Gaza - between one-third and two-thirds of the total. The rest will have to be removed by force.
The disengagement forces will be divided into six "rings." The first ring (combining both army and police) will deal with removing the settlers from their homes. The second ring, of Israel Defense Forces soldiers only, is charged with blocking the surrounding roads to prevent anti-withdrawal activists from reaching the settlement being evacuated.
Defending from attack
The third and fourth rings, all army, will defend both civilian and security forces from Palestinian attack. The fifth ring, mostly IDF soldiers, will patrol the Green Line to prevent activists from infiltrating the Strip from Israel. The sixth ring, consisting of police officers, will control traffic on Israeli roads in the western Negev near the Gaza border.
And there is another ring, which no one wants to discuss. It is the "zero ring," which will deal with any violent standoff situations that arise. Brigadier General Amos Ben-Avraham, who is the commander of the division unit for this force, avoids the cameras. Senior officers who were willing to talk about it hope it will not be needed, but they know that is an unreasonable expectation.
The order in which the settlements are to be evacuated will not be determined until Monday morning. Several plans of action are possible, including starting with the "easy" settlements in the north where the least opposition is expected, such as Elei Sinai and Dugit, or with the ideological stronghold of Netzarim.
The combined IDF-police teams that will carry out the evacuation of the homes where residents do not leave voluntarily consist of 17 people each, divided into four smaller groups of four soldiers and one police officer, and one team commander. Each home that will be evacuated has already been assigned to a team, which will be given maps and information on all residents and their expected level of opposition.
One half hour will be budgeted to the evacuation of each home, but team commanders can request an extension if needed.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday gave the final approval to the disengagement plan. In a meeting with senior IDF and police officers, he challenged them to complete the operation in two and a half weeks, by September 4, including the evacuation of the two remaining settlements in the northern Samaria - Sa-Nur and Homesh.
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