Israeli police pledge to stop marchers

Israeli police today pledged to stop more than 20,000 marchers, including teenagers with backpacks and parents with pushchairs, who were en route to the Gaza Strip to protest the summer's planned withdrawal – in the tensest showdown yet between protesters and the security forces.

After a first day of marching and a night spent in sleeping bags and tents, demonstrators wrapped in white shawls held morning prayers today at their roadside camp near the farming village of Kfar Maimon, about 10 miles east of the border with Gaza. Police were deployed nearby.