By Matt Spetalnick
GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Jewish settlers and their supporters who check into the dilapidated Palm Beach Hotel in occupied Gaza have no intention of checking out -- at least not voluntarily.
Dozens of far-right Israelis have begun moving into the once-abandoned resort, which military officials fear could become a centre of hardcore resistance to the evacuation of settlements in the coastal strip slated to begin in August.
Under the wary eye of the army, entire settler families, mostly from hardline West Bank settlements, have taken up residence in recent weeks, bringing coils of razor wire, stacks of plywood for renovations and their own rifle-toting guards.
Amid a clatter of hammering and sawing, the newcomers erected a handwritten sign at the main entrance on Monday renaming the beachfront complex "Maoz Hayam", or Stronghold-by-the-Sea.
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"We’re bringing in good people to save the Land of Israel," said Datiyah Yitzhaki, head of Kela, a protest group that has called for thousands of Israelis to pour into Gaza’s 21 settlements to block the evacuation.
Military officials say most Gaza settlers will leave quietly under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s "Disengagement Plan", which he has billed as a way to remove a key point of conflict with the Palestinians. Opinion polls show a majority of Israelis back the pullout.
But the army fears a few diehards, their ranks swelled by ultranationalists who see Gaza as Israel’s by biblical birthright and brand any pullout a "gift to terrorism", could blockade themselves in their settlements and turn violent.
Settler leaders spearheading the move to Palm Beach near Neve Dekalim, the urban hub of the Gush Katif settlement bloc, decline to say who is funding their effort, but insist the plan is to resist peacefully.
Despite that, the army sees it as a potential trouble spot.
ONCE-POPULAR RESORT
Built in 1986, the once-popular tourist resort closed after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 and militants started raining gunfire and mortars on the area. The hotel soon fell into disrepair, its lobby stripped of furniture and fixtures.
It lay deserted except for a handful of squatters, young settlers unable to afford regular housing and Israeli surfers who rate the beach as the best in the eastern Mediterranean.
But in recent weeks the Palm Beach Hotel has buzzed with activity. Fifteen settler families have already moved in from outside of Gaza under a plan to renovate and occupy 140 rooms with full approval of the hotel’s owners, Yitzhaki said.
Among the newcomers are members of Hilltop Youth, a West Bank group prone to violence, and Israelis linked to the anti-Arab Kach group, which is high on the security watch list.
"These guys are the hard core and could create problems," a security source said.
When Israel evacuated the settlement of Yamit in the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 as part of a peace treaty with Egypt, dozens of Kach activists holed themselves up in a bunker and threatened to commit suicide, at one point dousing the walls with petrol.
The stand-off ended after they were persuaded to back down.
Military officials say their intelligence shows that about 200 ultranationalists from around Israel and the West Bank have taken up residence in Gaza settlements in recent months.
But the Haaretz newspaper quoted one military source saying the hotel’s new residents appeared "extremist but not suicidal".
Some Gaza settlers welcome the newcomers as "defenders" but others say they are troublemakers who should have stayed home.
The army intends to seal off Gaza to all except official residents before the evacuation begins but will hold off as long as possible to avoid imposing a siege atmosphere.
Still, tensions are already on the rise at Palm Beach.
As religious newcomers move in, stockpiling supplies and refurbishing the hotel’s synagogue, they are putting pressure on the young squatters not committed to the anti-withdrawal movement to move out of their idyllic quarters.
No one is budging -- at least for now. "They’ve got a lot of nerve coming here and telling us what to do," said Yair Chazan, 24, a greenhouse worker who is resigned to leaving Gaza in coming weeks and plans to put up no resistance.
