Bulldozers raze Gaza settlements as evacuations near end

ISRAELI bulldozers knocked down houses in four Gaza settlements yesterday, levelling once-thriving villages in hours as thousands of soldiers poured into four other communities in the final phase of removing holdout settlers from the coastal strip.

The troops were met by burning barricades, pleading settlers and a mock cemetery built “for anyone who expels Jews from their homes”. Other settlers left in a dignified procession, quietly weeping.

In the West Bank, extremists exchanged blows with soldiers and slashed tires of army jeeps near Sanur, an enclave to be dismantled later this week. Police said 10 officers suffered light injuries in skirmishes that gave a foretaste of violent confrontations expected when forced evacuations shift to the West Bank.

A senior US envoy said during a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that Israeli’s pullout would boost the US-backed “road map” peace plan that envisions Palestinian statehood.

The Palestinians want to create a state comprising the Gaza Strip, all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Clouds of cement dust loomed over the Gaza settlements of Nissanit, Dugit, Peat Sadeh and Ganei Tal in the first large-scale demolitions since the Israeli pullout began six days ago, adding an air of finality to the pullout by making it obvious the settlers can never go back.

Crews are demolishing the homes as part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which wants to build apartment blocks at the former settlements to deal with a severe housing shortage among the 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

A senior Defence Ministry official, Victor Bargil, said all 21 Gaza settlements would be razed within two weeks, about half the time previously predicted.

Excavators and huge bulldozers ploughed through the whitewashed walls of red-roofed homes, leaving mounds of rubble and abandoned belongings reminiscent of Israel’s large-scale house demolitions in Palestinian communities during five years of fighting.

In Nissanit, cranes lifted prefabricated homes and loaded them on flatbed trucks, to be driven to Israel.

The last of the Gaza settlements, Netzarim, is due to be evacuated by today, with the entire Gaza evacuation compressed into just one week, far shorter than the three weeks security forces foresaw.