Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind rolls of barbed wire in the synagogue of the hard-line Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom today, as security forces dragged screaming residents out of nearby homes and a religious school.

ISRAEL’S top security chiefs are looking to tighten the already shortened Gaza Strip evacuation timetable, defence and government officials said yesterday.

Israeli troops today sealed off a cluster of Gaza Strip settlements marked for evacuation in order to stop an influx of hard-line pullout opponents, in the government’s most sweeping measure yet to prepare for next month’s withdrawal from 25 settlements.

The Israeli army today suspended a company commander who is accused of repeatedly shooting an injured 13-year-old Palestinian girl to ensure she was dead, but said the punishment was not because of that incident.

Israeli troops pushed deep into the largest Palestinian refugee camp today - a first in four years of fighting – after a Palestinian rocket killed two toddlers in a border town.