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Israel army delivers eviction orders to Gaza settlements - occupied Palestinian territory [1]
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Date: 2023-10
Gush Katif, Gaza Strip (dpa) - Israeli soldiers began delivering evacuation orders to Jewish settlers in more than a dozen settlements in the Gaza Strip early Monday morning, as Israel's evacuation of the Strip officially got under way.
Residents of some settlement's however refused to cooperate and barricaded their communities.
The soldiers and police forming the evacuating forces went from house-to-house delivering the eviction notices, but eye-witnesses said settlers at the Neveh Dekelim and Netzer Hazani settlements in the Gush Katif settlement block in the southern Strip barricaded the gate of their settlements and refused to allow the soldiers to enter.
"We will not let them in under any circumstances,'' a settler leader, speaking through a megaphone, told a crowd who had gathered next to the bulldozer and cars blocking the gate at Netzer Hazani.
He called however for the resistance to be non-violent. Hundreds of protestors also gathered at Neveh Dekelim to the south, where they faced off with around 100 policemen. Negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the standoff were underway.
Earlier, several hundred youth blocked the entrance gate of the settlement and prayed in the early morning.
"We are trying to work to stop this. They won't take us out while we are praying,'' Eitan Becker, 19, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"Our goal is to disrupt them,'' said protestor Elia Strassel, 17. The evacuation notices form the first, 48-hour phase of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which officially got under way at midnight, when the Strip was closed off to Israeli civilians.
The 8,000 settlers have 48 hours to leave their 21 settlements voluntarily, after which they will be removed by force if necessary.
Faced with opposition from the settlers, the evacuating forces said they will not enter four settlements to deliver the eviction orders, following requests by their residents.
The settlements of Netzarim, Kfar Darom, Azmona and Katif refused to evacuate on Monday, but rather than deciding to force the issue, the army decided not to clash with settlers refusing to let them in, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.
According to Israeli media reports there were overnight clashes in the Gaza Strip and in the northern West Bank between soldiers and protestors.
Israel has deployed more than 20,000 troops to carry out the disengagement. dpa ok cn jab pw mga
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[1] Url:
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/israel-army-delivers-eviction-orders-gaza-settlements
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