Ali
06-27-2005, 08:53 AM
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4745900
Israeli soldiers clashed with Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip yesterday in a preview of the pullout planned for August – as the military, in its first such operation, knocked down 11 abandoned buildings next to a seaside settlement.
The scuffles yesterday over the shells of structures unused for nearly 40 years revealed some of the tactics on both sides ahead of the evacuation of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank.
Settlers, most of them Orthodox Jewish youth, shouted epithets at soldiers, climbed on bulldozers and lay down under one of them before being dragged out one-at-a-time by soldiers.
Neither side resorted to arms or real violence, and the military said 20 people – 10 on each side – were injured, none of them seriously.
Five protesters were arrested, and a soldier was taken away after siding with the protesters.
In the end, the structures were knocked down as planned. But the scene foretold of the trouble that could emerge when soldiers and police try to remove settlers from their houses.
Security officials have warned that extremists among the settlers could open fire, and the military may be forced to use stronger means than the hands of unarmed soldiers if they are to complete the pullout.
Israel plans to uproot all 8,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza, as well as about 500 residents of four small settlements in the West Bank, beginning in mid-August.
Settlers, in their first large-scale disruption, plan a nationwide protest today in which they will stop their cars for 15 minutes on main highways during the evening rush hour, organisers from the main settlers council said. They had criticised earlier road-blocking protests.
The buildings demolished yesterday were former Egyptian resort cottages that were abandoned after Israel captured Gaza 38 years ago. The small beachfront settlement of Shirat Hayam is next to the site.
Pullout opponents had planned on moving into the structures to reinforce resistance during the withdrawal. The cottages are near a derelict beachfront hotel in Gaza where hundreds of opponents already have barricaded themselves.
As the troops arrived to carry out the demolitions, they were confronted by several dozen young protesters, shouting ”Jews don’t expel Jews.”
During the operation, a soldier began shouting and expressing support for the demonstrators. The army said the soldier’s weapon was confiscated, and he was escorted away.
“This is not justice,” the soldier, Avi Bieber, told reporters as he was led away. The army issued a statement saying Bieber refused a disciplinary hearing, and demanded a court martial instead. An officer would decide what measures would be followed, the statement said.
Hannah Apickar, a resident of Shirat Hayam, said yesterday’s scuffle was a sign of things to come.
“We don’t want a civil war, we’re against a civil war,” Apickar told Channel 2 TV. “We haven’t been violent, but you have to understand that when we see something like this here, we shall oppose it. We shall not let the bulldozers reach our area.”
The government has offered compensation and new homes to uprooted settlers. Yesterday, the Israeli Cabinet sweetened the offer by approving additional concessions, including deeply discounted land in a prime coastal area not far from Gaza.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said his security forces will ensure quiet from the Palestinian side during the pullout.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed the withdrawal more than a year ago as a step to improve Israeli security and beef up control over large blocs of settlements in the West Bank, where the vast majority of Israeli settlers live. The Palestinians claim all of Gaza and the West Bank for a future independent state.
Israel has continued expanding West Bank settlements, drawing sharp criticism from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent trip to the region, Israeli officials said yesterday.
The officials, who were present at a meeting with Rice, said she was displeased by construction she saw when travelling from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian leaders. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their positions.
Friction between the US and Israel has surfaced over different readings of President George Bush’s April 2004 letter that a final peace settlement would have to take Israel’s main settlement blocs into account.
Israel has interpreted the document as a green light to build in established West Bank communities, but the US maintains that any new construction violates the US-backed “road map” peace plan, which Washington hopes to revive after the Gaza pullout. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1119752425128&p=1078027574097 Hamas is using the lull in fighting to raise an "army" of several thousand fighters in the Gaza Strip to complement its developing
arsenal of Kassam rockets and mortars, an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
Both Hamas and Israel have clung to the fraying cease-fire, with the IDF curtailing offensives into Gaza and Hamas limiting the firing of
Kassams and mortars into settlements and villages.
"Hamas believes it needs an army of several thousand soldiers, and it is using this calm to build this army," said the source.
Hamas is believed to have stockpiled an arsenal of hundreds of Kassam rockets and many more primitive mortars. "The Kassam factories
continue to operate, and we are not doing anything to stop them," the source said.
Hamas's West Bank infrastructure is far weaker than its Gaza operations. While Hamas and the other Gaza-based rejectionist groups continued to smuggle weapons through the Rafah border with Egypt, the PA was increasingly active in blocking or destroying the tunnels, he said.
The current intelligence assessment considers Hamas's military build-up an insurance policy not only against Israel, but against the Palestinian Authority as well, "just in case Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] moves to strip Hamas of its weapons," he said.
When pressed, the officer would not elaborate on an exact number of Hamas "militiamen" involved in the group's new army.
While the IDF expects only "symbolic" fire from terrorist groups in Gaza during disengagement, intelligence sources believe that Hamas might have to launch attacks in the West Bank to capture the attention of the Palestinian street.
Hamas spokesman Moshir al-Masri denied that his group is building an army though "we affirm our commitment to fight the occupation with the
appropriate means."
Following the Post's report of a possible turf war between the PA and Hamas over the land to be evacuated, the source said "Hamas definitely
wants a piece of the pie in Gush Katif. At the end of the day, and toavert conflict, the PA will comply."
During Sunday's cabinet meeting Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also raised the issue of Hamas's building of a "people's army."
Nevertheless, the IDF believes that Hamas will live up to its end of the March 17 agreement in Cairo, when it agreed to a "state of calm."
Currently, Israel sees the pragmatic elements in Hamas taking the reins of the organization.
"It is clear that the killing of [Hamas leader Shiekh Ahmed] Yassin and [Abdel Aziz] Rantisi helped push this pragmatic stream forward," said the source.
And while Israel nervously eyes Hamas's military development, it remains uncertain about the group's political prospects. The upper IDF
intelligence echelon has been paying extremely close attention to its development into a political powerhouse, especially since the death of Yasser Arafat last November.
Hamas is currently listed in a category of its own in intelligence assessments. It is neither in the jihadist groups, whose sole raison d'etre is the destruction of Israel, nor in the friendly camp of Egypt, Jordan and the PA, but in a category called "undecided." and the beat goes on...
Israeli soldiers clashed with Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip yesterday in a preview of the pullout planned for August – as the military, in its first such operation, knocked down 11 abandoned buildings next to a seaside settlement.
The scuffles yesterday over the shells of structures unused for nearly 40 years revealed some of the tactics on both sides ahead of the evacuation of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank.
Settlers, most of them Orthodox Jewish youth, shouted epithets at soldiers, climbed on bulldozers and lay down under one of them before being dragged out one-at-a-time by soldiers.
Neither side resorted to arms or real violence, and the military said 20 people – 10 on each side – were injured, none of them seriously.
Five protesters were arrested, and a soldier was taken away after siding with the protesters.
In the end, the structures were knocked down as planned. But the scene foretold of the trouble that could emerge when soldiers and police try to remove settlers from their houses.
Security officials have warned that extremists among the settlers could open fire, and the military may be forced to use stronger means than the hands of unarmed soldiers if they are to complete the pullout.
Israel plans to uproot all 8,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza, as well as about 500 residents of four small settlements in the West Bank, beginning in mid-August.
Settlers, in their first large-scale disruption, plan a nationwide protest today in which they will stop their cars for 15 minutes on main highways during the evening rush hour, organisers from the main settlers council said. They had criticised earlier road-blocking protests.
The buildings demolished yesterday were former Egyptian resort cottages that were abandoned after Israel captured Gaza 38 years ago. The small beachfront settlement of Shirat Hayam is next to the site.
Pullout opponents had planned on moving into the structures to reinforce resistance during the withdrawal. The cottages are near a derelict beachfront hotel in Gaza where hundreds of opponents already have barricaded themselves.
As the troops arrived to carry out the demolitions, they were confronted by several dozen young protesters, shouting ”Jews don’t expel Jews.”
During the operation, a soldier began shouting and expressing support for the demonstrators. The army said the soldier’s weapon was confiscated, and he was escorted away.
“This is not justice,” the soldier, Avi Bieber, told reporters as he was led away. The army issued a statement saying Bieber refused a disciplinary hearing, and demanded a court martial instead. An officer would decide what measures would be followed, the statement said.
Hannah Apickar, a resident of Shirat Hayam, said yesterday’s scuffle was a sign of things to come.
“We don’t want a civil war, we’re against a civil war,” Apickar told Channel 2 TV. “We haven’t been violent, but you have to understand that when we see something like this here, we shall oppose it. We shall not let the bulldozers reach our area.”
The government has offered compensation and new homes to uprooted settlers. Yesterday, the Israeli Cabinet sweetened the offer by approving additional concessions, including deeply discounted land in a prime coastal area not far from Gaza.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said his security forces will ensure quiet from the Palestinian side during the pullout.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed the withdrawal more than a year ago as a step to improve Israeli security and beef up control over large blocs of settlements in the West Bank, where the vast majority of Israeli settlers live. The Palestinians claim all of Gaza and the West Bank for a future independent state.
Israel has continued expanding West Bank settlements, drawing sharp criticism from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent trip to the region, Israeli officials said yesterday.
The officials, who were present at a meeting with Rice, said she was displeased by construction she saw when travelling from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian leaders. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their positions.
Friction between the US and Israel has surfaced over different readings of President George Bush’s April 2004 letter that a final peace settlement would have to take Israel’s main settlement blocs into account.
Israel has interpreted the document as a green light to build in established West Bank communities, but the US maintains that any new construction violates the US-backed “road map” peace plan, which Washington hopes to revive after the Gaza pullout. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1119752425128&p=1078027574097 Hamas is using the lull in fighting to raise an "army" of several thousand fighters in the Gaza Strip to complement its developing
arsenal of Kassam rockets and mortars, an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.
Both Hamas and Israel have clung to the fraying cease-fire, with the IDF curtailing offensives into Gaza and Hamas limiting the firing of
Kassams and mortars into settlements and villages.
"Hamas believes it needs an army of several thousand soldiers, and it is using this calm to build this army," said the source.
Hamas is believed to have stockpiled an arsenal of hundreds of Kassam rockets and many more primitive mortars. "The Kassam factories
continue to operate, and we are not doing anything to stop them," the source said.
Hamas's West Bank infrastructure is far weaker than its Gaza operations. While Hamas and the other Gaza-based rejectionist groups continued to smuggle weapons through the Rafah border with Egypt, the PA was increasingly active in blocking or destroying the tunnels, he said.
The current intelligence assessment considers Hamas's military build-up an insurance policy not only against Israel, but against the Palestinian Authority as well, "just in case Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] moves to strip Hamas of its weapons," he said.
When pressed, the officer would not elaborate on an exact number of Hamas "militiamen" involved in the group's new army.
While the IDF expects only "symbolic" fire from terrorist groups in Gaza during disengagement, intelligence sources believe that Hamas might have to launch attacks in the West Bank to capture the attention of the Palestinian street.
Hamas spokesman Moshir al-Masri denied that his group is building an army though "we affirm our commitment to fight the occupation with the
appropriate means."
Following the Post's report of a possible turf war between the PA and Hamas over the land to be evacuated, the source said "Hamas definitely
wants a piece of the pie in Gush Katif. At the end of the day, and toavert conflict, the PA will comply."
During Sunday's cabinet meeting Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also raised the issue of Hamas's building of a "people's army."
Nevertheless, the IDF believes that Hamas will live up to its end of the March 17 agreement in Cairo, when it agreed to a "state of calm."
Currently, Israel sees the pragmatic elements in Hamas taking the reins of the organization.
"It is clear that the killing of [Hamas leader Shiekh Ahmed] Yassin and [Abdel Aziz] Rantisi helped push this pragmatic stream forward," said the source.
And while Israel nervously eyes Hamas's military development, it remains uncertain about the group's political prospects. The upper IDF
intelligence echelon has been paying extremely close attention to its development into a political powerhouse, especially since the death of Yasser Arafat last November.
Hamas is currently listed in a category of its own in intelligence assessments. It is neither in the jihadist groups, whose sole raison d'etre is the destruction of Israel, nor in the friendly camp of Egypt, Jordan and the PA, but in a category called "undecided." and the beat goes on...