NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - On the first day of Israel’s Gaza pullout, soldiers handed out eviction notices to sobbing Jewish settlers and helped some pack, but troops also scuffled with protesters who barricaded their communities with burning tires and locked arms.

Army commanders took pains to avoid serious clashes and refrained from forcing their way into settlements where opposition was heavy — a display of sensitivity before unleashing the military’s muscle to forcibly remove holdouts starting Wednesday.

“Your pain and your tears are an inseparable part of this country’s history,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told settlers during a nationally televised address in which he called the pullout a painful but essential step for Israel’s future.

He said previously it had become too hard to defend the Gaza settlements and their 8,500 residents in an overcrowded area of 1.3 million Palestinians, and the presence of so many Arabs under Israeli control was threatening the Jewish character of the state.

Sharon has repeatedly said the withdrawal is designed to allow Israel to hold on to all of Jerusalem and major parts of the West Bank — a position that raises questions about the prospects for peace since the Palestinians claim those areas for a state.

Nevertheless, Palestinians celebrated the beginning of the end for the 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip, and militant factions competed for credit for expelling the Israelis with their violent five-year uprising.

In his speech, Sharon urged Palestinian leaders to control extremists. “To an outstretched hand of peace we will respond with an olive branch, but fire will be met by fire more intense than ever,” he said.

Facing ‘changing reality’
Sharon spent most of his career as a champion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, saying just two years ago that Israel would not give up even small, isolated Gaza settlements.

“But the changing reality in the nation, region and world made me change my mind and change my position,” he said. “We cannot hold Gaza for good. More that a million Palestinians live there, doubling their numbers every generation.”

The confrontation between Israeli troops and the settlers was mostly peaceful, but the showdown nevertheless was "a painful and difficult day, said Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Over the next three weeks, Israel plans to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank. The withdrawal marks the first time Israel will dismantle settlements in areas captured in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.

Moving trucks
While Sharon says the pullout will improve Israel’s security, Jewish settlers fiercely oppose the plan and have promised stiff — but nonviolent — resistance.

But in a sign that at least some of the holdouts might leave by a Wednesday deadline, protesters permitted a convoy of moving trucks to enter the Neve Dekalim settlement on Monday afternoon.

Israeli troops fired in the air Monday to keep back hundreds of Palestinians, including a few dozen masked gunmen, who were marching toward southern Gaza’s Gush Katif bloc of settlements in celebration of the impending withdrawal. The crowd burned a cardboard model of an Israeli settlement, complete with an army watchtower.

Thousands of Israeli troops marched into Gaza’s settlements, delivering eviction notices in some communities, but encountering protests in others.

The notices gave settlers until midnight Tuesday to leave. If they ignore the deadline, they will be removed by force and could lose up to a third of their government compensation for the move.
 
 

Palestinian elections scheduled
In Gaza City, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas set Jan. 21 as the date for long-delayed legislative elections.

The order was meant to show that the Palestinians are on the road to establishing a democracy, said Saeb Erekat, a government spokesman. “Those who want to seek power need to do so through the ballot box, not bullets,” he said.

The elections were originally scheduled for July 17. Palestinian officials said the delay was for technical reasons, but the militant group Hamas accused Abbas of seeking time to shore up support for his embattled Fatah party. Hamas still plans to field candidates.

Hamas activists in Gaza City hung banners Monday proclaiming the pullout was a result of attacks by militants on Israelis. “The blood of martyrs has led to liberation,” one banner said.

But the group said it had no plans to carry out attacks during Israel’s withdrawal — an act that Israel warned would bring a harsh retaliation.

“If the Israelis evacuate the Gaza Strip quietly, I think there is no single person among our people who will obstruct or violate this evacuation,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

MSNBC.com