ISRAEL/GAZA: DOZENS OF ANTI-WITHDRAWAL PROTESTERS HALTED BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS AT GAZA CHECKPOINT/ AS SOME DEMONSTRATORS MANAGE TO INFLITRATE THE SECURITY CORDON

Record ID: 400691

  • Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: DOZENS OF ANTI-WITHDRAWAL PROTESTERS HALTED BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS AT GAZA CHECKPOINT/ AS SOME DEMONSTRATORS MANAGE TO INFLITRATE THE SECURITY CORDON
  • Date: 4th August 2005
  • Summary: (W2) KISSUFIM CROSSING, BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP (AUGUST 04, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS: RIGHT-WING PROTESTERS ARRIVING AT KISSUFIM CROSSING IN ATTEMPT TO INFILTRATE SEALED-OFF GAZA; PROTESTERS RUNNING TOWARDS CROSSING, SECURITY FORCES CHASING THEM, TRYING TO STOP THEM 0.52 2. VARIOUS OF SCUFFLES (3 SHOTS) 1.30 3. LV: VE
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KISSUFIM CHECKPOINT, BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BZ4C50SS0RC6IUNU5KU4HSUB
  • Story Text: Dozens of anti-pullout protesters halted by soldiers
    at Gaza checkpoint, some manage to infiltrate Sealed-off
    strip.


    Israeli soldiers managed to halt on Thursday (August
    04) a group of right-wing protesters who tried to
    infiltrate the Gaza Strip to reach Jewish settlements
    slated for evacuation under Israel's planned withdrawal
    from Gaza and a small corner of the West Bank in less than
    two weeks.

    Several protesters, some of whom minors, were detain by
    the army. But despite the arrests some demonstrators had
    managed to slip past the massive cordon of security, and
    were taken to Gush Katif by local settlers. The soldiers,
    who chased them, failed to prevent the infiltration.

    The protesters parted from thousands of rightists who
    suspended a march on Gaza settlements after security forces
    blocked their path to prevent them from disrupting the
    withdrawal.

    The vast majority of the protesters who had been halted
    by police and soldiers as they surged out of Ofakim in
    Southern Israel turned back toward the town just after
    dawn, and settler leaders said they would rest and decide
    what to do next.

    It was the latest attempt by settlers and their
    supporters to thwart Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to
    evacuate all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip starting
    on Aug. 17 in what he has called "disengagement" from
    conflict with Palestinians.

    A rally in Ofakim on Wednesday (August 03) night was
    followed by a march by an estimated 10,000 protesters who
    were stopped by thousands of police and soldiers on a road
    just outside the town, which lies 20 km (12 miles) from
    Gaza.

    After hours of negotiations, an agreement was reached
    to end the standoff.

    Polls show most Israelis support the planned withdrawal
    from Gaza and a small pocket of the occupied West Bank, but
    opponents say it would betray Jewish biblical claims to the
    land and reward a nearly five-year-old Palestinian uprising.

    Palestinians welcome any Israeli pullout but fear
    Sharon is trading Gaza for a permanent hold on much of the
    West Bank.

    The evacuation, which Washington sees as a possible
    springboard to renewed peace talks, would mark Israel's
    first
    removal of settlements from territory Palestinians want for
    a state.

    The pullout will affect 9,000 settlers, four percent of the
    240,000
    Jewish settlers living in blocs in the Gaza and
    West
    Bank -- home to 3.8 million Palestinians. The World Court
    has branded all the settlements illegal, but Israel
    disputes this.

    Security commanders had vowed to prevent the mass march
    from reaching Gush Katif and threatening the withdrawal
    plan. Some 17,000 police and soldiers had been deployed in
    the area.

    The government banned non-residents from passing
    through the Kissufim border crossing into Gaza a month ago
    to halt an influx of radical Jews bent on scuttling the
    pullout. That prompted a rash of infiltrations into the
    territory by ultranationalists.

    The protest may be the last attempt to foil the removal
    of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West
    Bank.

    YESHA (settlers political group) called off a similar
    march last month after police penned protesters in the
    desert for three days.

    Some Israelis believe the settlers have given up on
    keeping Gaza but want to raise a storm that will prevent
    further West Bank withdrawals.

    Sharon has said Israel must part with Gaza, where 8,500
    settlers live sealed off from 1.4 million Palestinians, for
    the
    Jewish state's own security and because it has no chance of
    keeping it in any future peace deal.


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