As one house was rapidly destroyed by fire-an irrelevant act since the houses, along with the synagogues are soon to be reduced to rubble-soldiers said that remnants of Molotov cocktails had been found, suggesting it was caused by extreme right protestors. Two houses were burned down here yesterday-but in neither case by the owners who appeared to have departed several days ago. With neither side using serious violence by yesterday evening as the operation continued over five hours, the arrangement allowed the Armya bloodless end to the sit-in and and the settlers an opportunity in front of a battery of domestic and international television cameras to demonstrate that they were not willingly surrendering.The Army embarked on the operation-which is likely to bring an early end in sight to the evacuation in Neve Dekalim-after evacuating the majority of houses in the settlement. .Some200 clapping women and girls-many weeping but fewer physically resisting-were separately evicted by women soldiers.As the eviction of males-starting with some middle aged men regarded as advisers to the protesters-continued one flailing teenager yelled out: "May this be a stain on your hearts" Another soldier, close to collapse, told fellow soldiers "I can't go on." Meanwhile the voice of a religious leader declaring to the arriving soldiers: " Don't evict Jews from this holy place" blared through the synagogue's speaker system.In Neve Dekalim at least, however, there appeared to be an element of stage management. Chanting "A Jew does not expel a Jew" the protesters themselves locked arms and legs while lying on the ground so that the troops had to prise them apart from each other.
"Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing," Ms Rice said, but added "It cannot be Gaza onlyIn Neve Dekalim around 200 troops moved in tolock ed arms to form a two deep human wedge across the plaza between the settlement's two synagogues, separately occupied by men and women,before a second contingent of specially trained forces broke open the door and began bydragging out the male protesters-many literally kicking and screaming-- out one by one..The Army was first obliged to lay sand on the two ramps leading to the religious complex because young men and women had poured cooking oil on them in an attempt to make them imassably slippery. The southern commander of the Army Dan Harel said the pro-settler violence in Kfar Darom had "crossed all boundaries."But as the Army said it had effectively evacuated 16 out of the 21 settlements -including the potentially volatile coastal ones of Kfar Yam and Shirat Hayam, and the Bush adminstration congratulated the Sharon adminstration, the US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice pointedly sought to use it as a platform for further politicial progress. Another fell two stories after slipping on oil deliberately put down by illegal infiltrators.Police who made around 50 arrests at Kfar Darom fired water cannon on protestors who occupied the roof and used a crane to hoist a cage to bring them down after also breaking into the building to evict the hardline opponents of disengagement inside. The worst violence in a day which saw the withdrawal proceed with a speed well beyond expectations was in a parallel operation in the synagogue of the hard line settlement of Kfar Darom where 27 police were injured, mainly by acid thrown at them by protesters. At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem the army released Palestinian murderers because it was a holy place and the army couldn't go there Here, the army enters a Jewish place.
Hours before the eviction, girls had gathered on the grass to sing the Jewish anthem "Ani Ma'im" which includes the words: "I believe with all my heart in the coming of the Messiah; I believe it in my heart." David Chan, 58, a surgeon and lieutenant-colonel in the army reserve, is also a self-professed illegal infiltrator into Gush Katif He said: " I'm really angry. They claimed that this was an unprecedented operation by Israeli troops to evict Jews from their places of worship. Although the decision by the protesters to barricade themselves into the synagogues left the army little choice, supporters of the settlers said they were outraged. The act is irrelevant since, along with the synagogues, the houses are scheduled to be destroyed anyway. As one house was being rapidly destroyed by fire, soldiers said that remnants of Molotov cocktails had been found around it, suggesting it was the work of extreme-right protesters. Two houses were burned down yesterday, but not by the owners, both of whom appeared to have left several days ago. The army embarked on the synagogue operation - which is likely to bring an early end to the full evacuation of Neve Dekalim - after clearing out most of the houses in the settlement.