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Israeli forces storm Gaza Synagogues
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-19 05:47
Israeli troops stormed a Gaza Strip synagogue and dragged out screaming Jewish settlers and their supporters yesterday as Israel's pullout from the occupied territory shifted into high gear.
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| A father and his son are carried away by Israeli policemen during the evacuation yesterday of the Jewish Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom.[AFP] |
Hundreds of unarmed soldiers and police swept into the main Jewish house of worship in the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, to end a two-day standoff with hundreds of ultranationalist youths who had defied orders to leave.
Protesters linked arms and chanted "Jews don't expel Jews" as groups of soldiers pulled them out one by one and carried them to waiting buses. One youth wrapped in an Israeli flag writhed and sobbed as he was taken away.
It was part of an effort by Israeli forces to break down the last bastions of resistance to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to end 38 years of occupation of the coastal territory.
On the second day of forced evacuation, confrontation also loomed in the hard-line settlement of Kfar Darom, where soldiers encircled hundreds of young radicals holed up behind razor wire in a synagogue, many standing on the rooftop singing.
As negotiators tried to reach a peaceful end to the standoff, troops knocked on doors nearby and ordered people out. Shouting and sobbing, some had to be dragged out, repeating scenes from other Gaza settlements the day before.
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