Israeli settler kills three Palestinians as tensions rise

Thousands of Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and even a nursery school today and hauled them onto buses in a massive evacuation, fulfilling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s promise to withdraw from the Gaza Strip after a 38-year occupation.

In the West Bank, an Israeli settler killed three Palestinians and wounded two others, in a shooting spree that aroused fears of Palestinian retaliation and the disruption of the evacuation mission which had gone largely without serious violence.

The gunman was identified as Asher Weisgan, 40, a driver who transported Palestinian labourers daily to work in the industrial zone of the West Bank settlement of Shilo. Weisgan seized a gun from a security guard at knifepoint, then shot two Palestinian labourers in his car, media reports said. He then continued shooting randomly, killing one more Palestinian and wounding two. Police captured and arrested him, said the reports.

In Gaza, unarmed soldiers carried away worshippers still wrapped in their white prayer shawls. Wailing men ripped their shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual. Women in a synagogue pressed their faces against the curtain covering the Torah scroll.

One 54-year-old woman from the West Bank set herself on fire at a police roadblock in southern Israel to protest at the Gaza pullout, suffering life-threatening burns on 70% of her body, police and hospital officials said.

Dozens of soldiers entered a Gaza yeshiva, or seminary, in Neve Dekalim, where settlers linked arms in a wide circle and swayed together in prayer. Soldiers formed a ring around the worshippers to wait for the end of the prayers, and some of the troops, still wearing their flak jackets, joined them in worship. Another 1,000 resisters were holding out in the settlement’s synagogue.

Irate residents in Kerem Atzmona employed Nazi-era imagery – including stars of David on their T-shirts – to protest the military’s actions. As soldiers arrived, settlers shouted at them: “Nazi!” “Refuse orders!” and “Jews don’t expel Jews.”

But there were no signs of serious violence in the settlements as a growing flood of residents appeared to be coming to terms with the withdrawal.

“I believed that God would not let this happen, but this is not true,” said a woman in the isolated settlement of Morag, clutching her baby.

Sharon said the images of settlers being removed from their homes were heartbreaking. “It’s impossible to watch this, and that includes myself, without tears in the eyes,” he told a news conference.

Sharon urged settlers to show restraint. “I’m appealing to everyone. Don’t attack the men and women in uniform. Don’t accuse them. Don’t make it harder for them, don’t harm them. Attack me. I am responsible for this. Attack me. Accuse me,” Sharon said.

The operation capped a bruising political battle for Sharon, who proposed the withdrawal more than 18 months ago as a way to reduce friction with the Palestinians. Opponents accuse him of caving in to Palestinian violence and abandoning the dream of full control over the biblical Land of Israel.

Throughout the day, some 14,000 troops entered six Jewish settlements – Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal, Tel Katifa and Kerem Atzmona. By the evening, all but Neve Dekalim were emptied, said military officials and witnesses.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged restraint as the Israelis withdraw. “We should let them go peacefully in order not to give them any reason to delay the evacuation,” he told Islamic preachers in his Gaza office. Thousands of Palestinian police were deployed to prevent attacks by militants.

Outlining his vision for the land the Israelis were leaving, he said the Palestinians will build a sea port at the dismantled settlement of Netzarim and a new city on the site of Morag.

The Israelis “will leave behind 152 public buildings inside the settlements that will be used for the benefit of our people,” Abbas said.

Security officials said the goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in just a few days, far more quickly than originally planned. But thousands of pull-out opponents who infiltrated Gaza in recent weeks also remained.

In Neve Dekalim, a grizzled colonel, with tears in his eyes, shook hands with a young father, cradling the man’s tiny baby, as he explained it was time to go.

Another commander, identified only as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged another settler. “It’s not easy. These are very special people. This is the salt of the earth,” Yitzhak said. “But we have a mission and we will carry it out, and I think these people understand that.”

Fifteen ultra-Orthodox protesters from the Chabad sect barricaded themselves in the basement of this settlement’s synagogue and threatened to set themselves on fire, police said.

Some teenagers – mainly West Bank activists – showed fierce resistance. Troops dragged dozens of protesters, some as young as 12, onto buses and took them away. “I want to die,” screamed one youth as he was hauled off. Several soldiers were hit by white paint bombs, and protesters smashed the window of the bus.

Hundreds of protesters holed up in the town’s main synagogue. “I believe in the messiah,” sang a group of teenage girls. Many cried as they pressed their faces to the curtain covering the Torah.

In Morag, soldiers encountered cement blocks and burning rubbish containers when they entered the settlement early today, and briefly clashed with residents. But as the day dragged on, protesters gradually surrendered.

Under a willow tree at a children’s nursery, mothers clutched their babies, soldiers carried toddlers, settlers ripped their clothes in mourning and troops loaded diapers and toys onto buses for evacuation.

A female soldier with tears in her eyes held a toddler in her arms, gave him some candy and implored, “Where is his mother?” Another soldier waved away flies from a toddler lying in a stroller.

Troops carried dozens of worshippers out of the local synagogue, in one case escorting a crying man covered by a prayer shawl. Some kept praying in front of the Torah as soldiers removed others.

Soldiers also removed families from their homes. Female residents walked out under army escort, while the men let themselves by carried. One resident, Eran Hendel, lay on the floor, read a psalm and ripped his shirt collar before being carried away.

Soldiers dragged the flailing residents out of their homes and loaded them onto buses, as children sat in their homes crying.

In the Bedolah settlement, Rabbi Menachem Froman hugged and kissed a Torah scroll as he was led out of the local synagogue. A soldier held him up by the elbow. The elderly, white-bearded rabbi who lives in a West Bank settlement, is an advocate of coexistence with the Palestinians.

The Gaza pull-out is to be accompanied by a withdrawal from four small West Bank settlements. Security officials have expressed fears that the West Bank pullout could be more violent, given the land’s biblical significance to observant Jews.

Sharon, meanwhile, reiterated he would never give up the West Bank’s largest settlement blocs. He said settlers’ efforts were not in vain, but that it was no longer realistic to hold on to Gaza, where 1.3 million Palestinians live in crowded, impoverished conditions.

“True, they (settlers) had a dream, and I did too, that we can hold on to all the territory, or most of the territory, but things have changed,” Sharon said.

The army said it arrested 52 Israelis headed today to Homesh, one of the settlements slated for evacuation.

Once Gaza is cleared of civilians, it will take troops about a month to dismantle military installations and relinquish the coastal strip to Palestinian control.