Israeli police block Gaza protesters

ISRAELI right-wingers clashed yesterday with police who blocked thousands of protesters from marching on Gaza settlements and trying to disrupt Israel’s pullout from the occupied strip.

Demonstrators ignored orders to disperse as security forces penned them inside the southern Israeli farming village of Kfar Maimon to prevent them from advancing any further toward the Gush Katif settlement bloc, about 15 kilometres to the west.

It was the biggest showdown so far with protesters opposed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan and could be a preview of confrontations expected when Israel begins evacuating 21 settlements in Gaza and a pocket of the West Bank next month.

Sixteen people were arrested and several injured when demonstrators shouting "Police state!" tried to push through a police cordon.

Police and angry youths traded punches. Officers on horseback moved into the crowd. Water cannons were brought in but not used.

"This protest is illegal. The event is over. We are offering bus rides back to your homes," police shouted through loudspeakers at the protesters.

However, there was no immediate sign that anyone was taking heed and some settlers responded defiantly dancing and singing.

"We will reach Gush Katif," said Benzi Lieberman, a leader of the YESHA settler's council, which organised the protest. "We will stay here and fight for as many nights as it takes."

The Kfar Maimon standoff loomed against a backdrop of resurgent Israeli-Palestinian violence and fresh clashes in Gaza between Hamas militants and Palestinian security men developments that could complicate the settlement evacuation.

Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants in a gun battle during a raid on their hideout near the West Bank town of Jenin, witnesses and Israeli military sources said.

Polls show most Israelis support the Gaza pullout, the first from settlements on land that Palestinians want for a state, and Washington sees it as a possible step towards reviving talks on a stalled "road map" for Palestinian independence.

The withdrawal, which Mr Sharon has billed as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians, has, however, angered rightists who say Israel is giving up a biblical birthright and rewarding a Palestinian uprising.

Palestinians welcome any pullout but fear Mr Sharon is trading tiny Gaza for a tighter grip on larger West Bank settlements that house most of Israel's 240,000 settlers. About 8,500 Jews live cloistered from 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.