Israeli forces marched into three Jewish enclaves in Gaza today to remove weeping settlers shouting their defiance and complete the evacuation of the biggest settlement bloc in the occupied territory.
Confrontation loomed as several hundred young radicals, reinforcing dozens of settler families that disobeyed last week's army directive to leave, awaited troops sent to carry them away. Protesters set fire to bales of hay, tyres and wooden crates at the main entrance to the settlement of Katif.
Dozens of soldiers bypassed the barricade, which belched black smoke into the clear summer sky, and entered through a nearby fence.
Katif settler Haim Ben-Arieh said he hoped for divine intervention to stop a withdrawal from land to which many settlers stake a biblical claim and where Palestinians want to build a state. "The great miracle can happen here, in Katif, with God's help," said Ben-Arieh, a religious Jew.
Troops also poured into Atzmona and Slav, which along with Katif, were the last remaining inhabited Jewish settlements in the Gush Katif bloc. Israeli security officials said they hoped to declare the area evacuated by day's end.
"Take off your sunglasses and look me in the eye. How can you evict a young girl like me?" a tearful settler shouted at an Israeli officer, twice her size, in a house in Atzmona. President Mahmoud Abbas decreed the Palestinian Authority would take over all the Gaza settlements as the Israelis withdraw under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians.
Only four of Gaza's 21 settlements remain after forced evacuations last week in which settlers were carried from homes and protesters tussled with troops who pulled them screaming from synagogues.
"There was a very severe phenomenon of the infiltrators and it seems some of them did things I would define as wild acts that I think border on crimes," said Mr Sharon, referring to youngsters who slipped into settlements.
Elei Sinai in northern Gaza was due to be evacuated later today, ahead of Netzarim, an isolated settlement near Gaza City, tomorrow. With Palestinian agreement, Israeli forces were to start full-scale demolition of evacuated homes on Sunday.
Mr Sharon spoke at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting during which ministers formally approved the final phase of the pullout, including the evacuation starting on Tuesday of two of 120 settlements Israel has built in the occupied West Bank.
The vote was 16-4. Palestinians welcome the removal of the 8,500 Gaza settlers and another 500 from the West Bank, but fear Israel aims to keep most of the other settlements housing 230,000 settlers forever.