The Israeli army announced Friday that it was lifting restrictions on Gaza settlements just one day after declaring them a controlled military zone. According to a statement released by the Israel Defense Forces, the danger to the disengagement plan has been eliminated.
Thursday, Israeli police and soldiers raided a hotel in the Gaza Strip to oust extremist protestors who were planning to forcibly resist the government's planned unilateral withdrawal from all of Gaza and four West Bank settlements. The withdrawal is scheduled to begin on August 15, some 45 days from now.
The settlers had placed barbed wire around the hotel and stockpiled food. They announced they would resist all attempts to remove them. However, when the IDF moved in yesterday, the settlers were removed without much of a fight.
The army warned the radical settlers that 'further escalation of this course of action taken by radical elements may have grave effects on the region.'
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains determined to go ahead with the plan to withdraw from Gaza as scheduled. Thus far, he has acted quickly to confront the radical settlers despite his history as a supporter of the settler movement.
It appears the actions of the radical settlers have backfired, at least in the court of Israeli public opinion. A poll in the Israeli daily 'Yedioth Ahronoth' indicates that support for the Gaza withdrawal plan is now up to 62 percent. Just a week ago it was at 53 percent. Opposition to the plan has fallen from 38 percent to 31 percent.
'In a few days the settlers have succeeded in arousing feelings of disgust that they did not manage to arouse for decades,' said newspaper commentator Sima Kadmon.
Negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel to coordinate the withdrawal are expected to resume shortly.
