Israel moves into last Gaza settlements

Jewish settlers turned to prayer rather than confrontation yesterday, leaving occupied Gaza quietly after worshipping with troops sent to complete the evacuation of the biggest settlement bloc in the territory.

Bastions of resistance in settlements emptied last week, synagogues became final assembly points for the peaceful departure of dozens of families bidding farewell to homes on land Palestinians want for a state.

"It is with great difficulty that we must continue and go forth together and take the orange spirit with us," Rabbi Noah Vishonsky, citing the colour of opposition to the Gaza pull-out, told his congregation in the settlement of Katif.

Settlers, and troops ordered to remove them, participated in an afternoon prayer service and then walked to waiting buses bound for Israel.

"The people of Katif have decided to leave on their own two feet without being forcibly evacuated. It has been done with dignity, calm and no hysterical behaviour. Silence can be very powerful," said police spokeswoman Sharon Brown.

The synagogue scene was repeated in Atzmona, which along with Katif and Slav, another enclave due to be evacuated by day's end, were the last remaining inhabited settlements in the Gush Katif bloc.

More than 85 per cent of Gaza's settlers have gone since forced evacuations began on Wednesday, but resistance has been reinforced by radicals like those who made stands last week at Neve Dekalim, the biggest settlement, and Kfar Darom.

The operation, after a break for the Jewish Sabbath, got off to a fiery start. Protesters at Katif set bales of hay, tyres and wooden crates ablaze at its main entrance, but troops easily bypassed the barricade.

President Mahmoud Abbas decreed the Palestinian Authority would take over all 21 Gaza settlements as the Israelis withdraw. With Palestinian agreement, Israeli forces started full-scale demolition of empty homes in Gaza yesterday. In a sign of possible violence to come, several hundred young ultranationalists poured out of the hilltop West Bank settlement of Sanur and briefly blocked army bulldozers trying to carve out an encampment for troops. Many religious Jews feel an even closer biblical bond to the West Bank than to Gaza. The army said one soldier was taken to hospital after scuffles with the protesters, who plan to confront evacuation forces due to push into Sanur and nearby Homesh tomorrow.

Two other West Bank settlements included in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan have already been vacated by its residents, many of whom jumped at the opportunity to leave an area where they have come under frequent Palestinian attack.