Israeli forces enter largest Gaza settlement
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-17 06:05

"All of Gush Katif is in mourning," settler Gilad Meimon said as he waited in a vehicle loaded with family belongings to leave Gaza's largest Jewish settlement bloc forever.

Security officials fear that a hard core of ultranationalists, including some of the 5,000 who had infiltrated the settlements in recent weeks, could turn violent.

Israeli police have arrested more than 800 right-wing pull-out opponents since Monday night.

The Neve Dekalim melee began after soldiers used a saw to cut through the main gate early yestersday, and hundreds of troops streamed in to push back protesters.

A senior Palestinian security official said yesterday that the Palestinian police engineering units will be the first security forces to enter the evacuated settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Colonel Jamal Kayed, chief of Palestinian national security forces in central Gaza Strip, told reporters that the engineering units will be in charge of clearing explosive devices in the vacated settlements before transferring them to the Palestinian Authority.