Israel launches Gaza pull-out

Jewish settlers blocked Gaza's most hardline enclaves yesterday to stop soldiers from delivering eviction notices launching a pullout that Israel says will end its 38-year occupation of the coastal trip.

Troops avoided confronting the protesters but went door to door in other enclaves, telling settlers to leave by tomorrow or face forcible eviction under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to leave Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

In the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, settlers used makeshift barricades and their bodies to impede an operation that paves the way for Israel's first uprooting of settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.

Bearded men stood at the main entrance praying for divine intervention. Settlers with loudspeakers urged soldiers to refuse orders. Protesters scuffled briefly with police, pelted them with paint-filled balloons and set fire to tyres.

"A lot of blood was spilled on this holy land. It was presented to Abraham for the Jews and we are not going to leave it," settler Chaim Gross said in Gaza's Morag settlement.

Many of the 8,500 Gaza settlers vowed not to budge, many insisting the land was the biblical birthright of Jews. They were joined by up to 5,000 ultra-nationalists who arrived to reinforce their stand. But hundreds of settlers had left.

"The number of families leaving is not small," Eival Giladi, strategic coordinator in Mr Sharon's office, told reporters. "Every family that leaves legitimises more to do the same."

Mr Giladi said he expected about half the settlers to be out by the time their 48 hours were up at midnight tomorrow. He said food supplies had been cut off from yesterday.

In the Morag settlement, one resident could do little but weep and a soldier put his arm around him for comfort, a scene repeated elsewhere.

In the largely empty Nissanit settlement, soldiers and settlers cried in mourning as they removed sacred objects from the synagogue. All buildings are to be demolished after the withdrawal.

Israeli officials say 66 per cent of the Israeli families in Gaza have accepted state compensation deals but not all have left. Those who refuse to go could lose a third of the money, which ranges from $150,000 to $400,000 per family.

Eviction warnings to 9,000 settlers in all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank went into effect at midnight on Sunday under Mr Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians.

The settlers have 48 hours to leave or face eviction. The pullout, claimed by Palestinian militants as a victory and decried by Israeli opponents as a surrender to violence, is seen by Washington as a catalyst for renewed peacemaking.

Under a rare agreement, 7,500 Palestinian security men in Gaza moved into position on the outskirts of the fortified settlements to ward off possible militant attacks.

Two makeshift rockets hit Gaza settlements but caused no casualties. Palestinian militants have largely observed a truce agreed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel in February.

"The Israeli withdrawal that has begun today is an important and historic step," Mr Abbas told government-controlled Wafa News Agency. He demanded an end to occupation elsewhere as well.

Troops fanned out in some settlements to deliver eviction notices. In Morag, soldiers knocked on the door and entered a house with a sign that read: "We're not moving from here."

In an apparent bid to avoid early confrontations, the army said it had decided not to go into five of the settlements, widely seen as bastions of resistance, until evacuation day.

Even in Neve Dekalim, a stronghold of anti-pullout sentiment, there were growing signs that people had resigned themselves to leaving.

A number of residents stood in front of red-roofed homes packing belongings into moving vans. "I've decided to leave - there is no alternative now," said settler David Bufad, 55.

Israel's Cabinet gave final approval to quit Gush Katif, the largest Gaza settler bloc, a vote seen as a formality. Mr Sharon, once the settlers' champion but now reviled by them as a traitor, had already won overall ministerial support for his plan, though it has divided his rightist Likud party.

Under the slogan "Jews don't expel Jews", settler leaders have waged an emotional campaign against Mr Sharon's plan to uproot settlements he said had little security value for Israel.

Palestinians welcome Israel's withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. But they fear Mr Sharon devised the Gaza plan as a ruse to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live.

The World Court describes Israeli settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.

Israel intends to leave the Gaza settlements and the four West Bank enclaves by September 4. It plans to complete the Gaza pullout in October when the last troops come out.

Polls show a majority of Israelis favour quitting Gaza.