Enlarge imageBy Jonathan Saul
KATIF, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israel completed the evacuation of its main settlement bloc in occupied Gaza on Sunday as settlers set aside confrontation in favour of prayer with troops sent to remove them.
Synagogues, bastions of resistance in settlements emptied last week, became gathering points for the peaceful departure of dozens of families from territory Israel captured 38 years ago and which Palestinians want for a state.
Israeli troops cleared out the settlements of Atzmona, Katif and Slav on Sunday, the last remaining inhabited settlements in a sprawling cluster in southern Gaza known as Gush Katif.
"I can declare the Gush Katif bloc empty of residents," said Israeli police spokesman Avi Zelba.
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Troops also entered Elei Sinai and Nissanit in north Gaza to extract a few families who stayed past the August 16 deadline. The army was to go into the remote central enclave of Netzarim on Monday, finishing its shutdown of all 21 Gaza settlements.
It intends to remove two of 120 settlements in the West Bank later this week, wrapping up a limited "Disengagement Plan", but faces violent resistance there from radical Jewish newcomers.
With Palestinian agreement, Israeli forces began demolishing housing in four of the vacant settlements but will leave intact public buildings such as schools and community centres.
About 95 percent of Gaza’s 8,500 settlers have gone since mandatory evacuations began last Wednesday, an exit much faster and smoother than many had expected after months of escalating rightist protests against the planned pullout.
The bulk of resistance last week was mounted by radical outsiders from West Bank settlements who made stands at Neve Dekalim, the biggest settlement in Gaza, and Kfar Darom.
On Sunday, settlers took part in an afternoon prayer service in Katif and Atzmona, along with soldiers sent to collect them, then walked to waiting buses or their cars and left for Israel.
"It is with great difficulty that we must continue and go forth together and take the orange spirit with us," Rabbi Noah Vishonsky, citing the colour of opposition to the Gaza pullout, told his congregation in the settlement of Katif.
BITTERNESS
Some cars were draped in orange with stars of David and bore placards saying "refugees from Gush Katif" and "expelled".
Police official Sharon Brown said the latest departures were "done with dignity, calm and no hysterical behaviour".
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bills the pullout as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians and U.S.-led mediators regard the move as a catalyst for reviving a Middle East peace process frozen since 2000.
Addressing army evacuation squads at a camp on Sunday, Sharon said: "Truly, you have done something here that was unbearably difficult -- very difficult for the residents, difficult for you, but essential for the State of Israel."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decreed that his administration would take over all Gaza settlements once the Israelis left. The pullout would not be complete until military forces are out too, expected in about another month.
After a break for the Jewish Sabbath, the evacuation operation resumed with fire. Protesters in Katif set bales of hay, tyres and wooden crates ablaze at its main entrance -- but troops easily bypassed the barricade.
In a sign of possible violence to come, several hundred young ultranationalists poured out of the hilltop West Bank settlement of Sanur and briefly blocked army bulldozers trying to carve out an encampment for troops.
Residents of two other West Bank settlements included in the plan have already left, many jumping at the opportunity to leave an area where they have come under frequent Palestinian attack.
Palestinians are glad to see the back of the Gaza settlers and 500 more in the West Bank. But they fear Israel aims to keep forever most other West Bank settlements housing 230,000 people.
Most Israelis favour "disengagement" from 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 1.4 million in tiny Gaza.
Israeli rightists say the pullout is a victory for Palestinian militants, a view echoed by the gunmen, and fear that uprooting Gaza’s settlements sets a precedent for further moves out of much bigger Israeli enclaves in the West Bank.
The World Court says Jewish settlements are illegal. Israel disputes this.
