19,000 Israeli police to oversee Gaza pullout

The Israeli police plans to assign 18,000 officers, or nearly all of its field force, to the planned pullout from the Gaza Strip this summer.

Some 2,500 unarmed officers will be asked to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gaza, an additional 4,000 will be posted at the passages into Gaza and the remainder will deal with demonstrations across the country, said police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

Settler leaders said they expect the officers to be far outnumbered by protesters.

The Yesha Council of Jewish settlements said it would be able to call out at least 100,000 people to disrupt the evacuation, in part by staging huge sit-down strikes not only in Gaza, but across the country, where protesters will chain themselves to boulders and other objects.

“We will sit there, like sacks of potatoes,” council spokeswoman Emily Amrusy said. “It’s enough for them not to move, and they will need four policemen to dislodge each person. … We will make the evacuation so difficult that police will say it’s impossible to evacuate so many.”

The army is expected to seal Gaza to protesters before the evacuation to keep down the resistance.

Kleiman said police are not understaffed. “With what we have, it will be very difficult, but there is no question the disengagement will go off,” he said.

About 18,000 of the country’s 26,000 police will be assigned to deal with the summer disengagement, or nearly all of the police who operate in the field, Kleiman said.

Soldiers will not be assigned to deal with civilians, but will be responsible for security and Gaza Strip perimeters.