Israel expects most settlers to leave before Gaza clearance

Israel expects two-thirds of the 9,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements due for evacuation to leave before troops arrive to clear the settlements, a senior Israeli official said today.

“In my view when the Israeli Defence Force enters, it will be met by only about a third of the settlers,” said Yonatan Bassi, who heads the agency in charge of compensating uprooted settlers.

Earlier in the week Bassi told a parliamentary committee that only 396 of the 1,100 families have so far initiated proceedings to move. Settler leaders have vowed to stay and resist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan set for mid-August.

But Bassi said he believed many more would soon leave.

“In the two weeks before the disengagement there will be an exodus,” Bassi said. “The people who are now trickling out will become a flow. Two days before ‘D-Day’ the flow will become a tidal wave,” he said.

Settlers’ leaders have promised non-violent resistance only, but there are fears small extremist groups will put up a fight. In recent weeks groups of extremists have commandeered buildings in Gaza and clashed with security forces and Palestinians.

Bassi said he believed the majority of settlers who remained until the actual evacuation would not resist.

“There will be a knock on the door and they will leave. Very few will resist by force,” he said.

However, he did identify three settlements where he said violent resistance was expected, specifically in the settlement of Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank. When residents of Sa-Nur fled the settlement during the more-than-four years of violence with the Palestinians, extremists moved in and took over the community.

“Something very bad is liable to develop there (in Sa-Nur),” Bassi said.

Bassi also addressed the fate of the buildings and homes left to be left behind by the settlers. The Israeli government decided to destroy the buildings, but some officials, including Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, have expressed opposition to razing the structures, saying it would extend the period of the pullout and endanger soldiers unnecessarily.

Bassi said that the demolition would take place during the evacuations and not after.

“To make sure the settlers do not return, the bulldozers will advance with the forces and demolish one settlement after another,” he said. Bassi said greenhouses in the area would also be destroyed.

Palestinans had hoped that they would be able to take over the greenhouses to help alleviate the unemployment in the poverty stricken strip.

However, Haim Altman, a spokesman for Bassi, today said nothing had been decided regarding the greenhouses. Altman also said some greenhouses are portable and settlers would take them with when they left.

Bassi said he was opposed to the destruction, saying it would create terrible images of wanton destruction. “We are going to leave behind an area that will look like an atom bomb was dropped on it,” he said.