How Gaza withdrawal is expected to occur

How Gaza withdrawal is expected to occur
JERUSALEM (AP) — During the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next week, security forces will politely ask settlers to leave and, if that fails, drag them out by force.
Israeli soldiers train for next week's eviction of settlers from Gaza Strip areas.
By Lefteris Pitarakis, AP
Here is how the pullout is expected to be carried out:
• Some 55,000 police and soldiers will participate in the evacuation of 8,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and 500 in the northern West Bank. The forces have undergone intensive training to prepare.
• Troops will be deployed in six concentric circles in and around Gaza. An unarmed inner circle will remove settlers, with a second circle of armed troops nearby to deal with possible violence. Outer circles will be charged with preventing Palestinian attacks and keeping out Jewish protesters.
• The evacuation of Gaza's 21 settlements and four settlements in the northern West Bank is expected to take three weeks. No evacuations will take place from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
• On Monday, soldiers will knock on settlers' doors and inform them they have 48 hours to leave. Those who leave during the 48-hour grace period can travel in their own cars. The army will help pack their belongings without space constraints. Anyone leaving by midnight of Aug. 16 will be entitled to full compensation. Those who miss the deadline may lose up to a third of it.
• Starting Wednesday, unarmed units of 17 soldiers and police officers, both men and women, will go door to door asking settlers to go quietly, explaining that their presence in Gaza after Aug. 15 is illegal.
• Those who remain illegally may take out no more two containers per household. Large possessions and cars will be left behind.
• All non-Gaza residents and anyone seen walking the streets will be herded onto buses and taken out. The army estimates that some 3,000 pullout opponents from outside Gaza have entered the coastal strip in recent weeks.
• Four members of the security forces will handle each resisting settler, with each grabbing a limb and carrying the person to waiting buses. Female soldiers will deal with women and children.
• Security forces conducting the actual evacuations will not carry guns, using rubber batons instead. Water cannons will be on standby.
• If settlers take to the roofs, construction cranes will hoist troops aloft to force the resisters into the arms of security forces below.
• Security forces are prepared to break into settlers homes to remove resisters.
• Authorities will relocate 48 graves at the cemetery at Gaza's Neve Dekalim settlement to Israel — one of the most emotionally charged issues the government has faced in the pullout.
• After the evacuations are complete, troops will begin demolishing settlers' homes, part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which believes the single-story cottages should be replaced by multistory buildings for Palestinian housing. Israel will remove dangerous material, such as asbestos. Palestinians will use part of the rubble for the construction of a seaport.
• Troops are expected to complete their own pullout, dismantling bases by October. Palestinians will take over the land when the army completes its pullout.
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