By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 16, 2005
Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel, commander of the IDF's Southern Command and overall commander of Israel's retreat from Gaza, confirmed evacuation forces would move into Jewish Gaza Tuesday evening to begin the expulsion of its residents.
?In the coming hours we will begin to come to residents, in particular of Neve Dekalim, and demand that they come out,? Harel told reporters. ?We are entering the phase of forced evacuation.?
Harel stressed, however, that soldiers and police would not use force against those who refused demands to leave until Wednesday morning.
The residents of Neve Dekalim, the largest of Gaza's Jewish communities and the one expected to offer the fiercest resistance, are calling on all Israelis concerned for the future of the state to make their way to Jewish Gaza by any means possible in order to thwart the evacuation.
Security forces clashed with settlers in Neve Dekalim earlier Tuesday, in what was a sometimes violent, always tense and often tearful confrontation.
Many young soldiers were escorted away in tears by colleagues that feared their emotional display would spark refusals to obey any further orders to uproot fellow Jews.
The confrontation began when settlers refused to allow moving trucks to enter the community, bringing a flood of soldiers and police officers down upon what has become the center of ?disengagement? resistance.
Two soldiers and one settler were lightly wounded in the fray. Fifty settlers were arrested.