Thousands Protest Gaza Pullout

[David]

AP


Thousands of Gaza withdrawal opponents began marching Monday evening in defiance of a police ban, determined to reach nearby Jewish settlements and stop Israel's pullout next month, the biggest test yet for security forces.

About 20,000 police and soldiers were deployed in southern Israel to block the marchers, and confrontations were expected.

In an unprecedented step, police fanned out across the country and prevented protesters from boarding buses that were to take them to the demonstration. Angry organizers called on their backers to get there somehow, and dozens started walking toward Gaza from Jerusalem, more than 60 miles away.

Palestinian militants pounded Israeli settlements in Gaza and surrounding areas with rocket and mortar attacks this weekend.

In Gaza itself, Egyptian mediators held talks with Palestinian militants to try to rescue a five-month-old Mideast truce after a violent weekend. Some progress was apparent, and the frequency of Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks subsided somewhat on Monday.

A Hamas leader said his group retains the right to retaliate for Israeli violations, but he repeated a commitment to the Egypt-brokered truce. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped to achieve a new commitment to the truce soon.

Abbas told foreign reporters at his Gaza office that he is still hopeful that negotiations among the Palestinian factions can reconstitute the cease-fire. "We are still working very hard to get a full commitment to the truce," but warned that he would brook no opposition to his forces.

"We hope and pray that we won't have to shoot anyone," he said.

"I don't think that diplomacy has failed completely," Abbas said. "We are still working very hard ... to get a full commitment to the truce now or pretty soon."

Abbas blamed Israel for starting the violence, listing incidents in which Israeli forces killed Palestinians, but he said Palestinians should "take decisions together by consensus rather than any one faction acting on its own."

"Nobody has the right to take the law into his own hands, nobody," Abbas added.

In a small sea of orange, the color chosen by settlers to symbolize their opposition, about 20,000 protesters gathered in Netivot, an Israeli town 15 miles from the Kissufim crossing, the entrance to the Gush Katif bloc of Gaza settlements. Despite police efforts, several dozen buses were lined up in a field near the demonstration after ferrying protesters.

The main target of the settlers was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for decades the champion of settlement construction and expansion who suddenly changed course and proposed removing veteran settlements from the West Bank and Gaza for the first time.

Protesters warned that exiting Gaza would leave Hamas with a free hand there and encourage attacks. Five young children sat in a circle with bumper stickers attached to their shirts reading, "Sharon is creating a terror state."

Ori Ben-Naim, 15, from the West Bank settlement of Hashmonaim, was determined to march on Gaza. "They don't have a way to stop us," he said. "The march is going to show, especially to the government, that we are not going to give up Gush Katif."

Thousands of police and soldiers lined the roads between Netivot and the crossing, preparing to stop the march. Police commissioner Moshe Karadi declared it illegal. "When it became apparent that the participants would use this event as a platform to disrupt the evacuation by establishing a human block and attempting to enter Gush Katif, I decided to prohibit it," he said in a statement.

Almost all of the protesters were Orthodox Jews, illustrating the religious backing of the opposition to the removal of all 21 settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank, set to begin in mid-August. Rabbis have declared that no Israeli government has the right to relinquish control of any part of biblical Israel.

A long blue tarp down the middle of the site separated the men and the women in Orthodox Jewish fashion. Teenagers and parents, some pushing strollers and others carrying children on their shoulders, stood in the hot afternoon sun, joining in prayers chanted over blaring loudspeakers.

A huge banner over the stage read, "Mass march to Gush Katif." Anger was tempered with celebration, as youngsters danced in circles and licked orange popsicles.

Police tried to pre-empt the gathering by stopping dozens of buses before they could leave for Netivot with some success.

In Jerusalem, nearly 100 opponents waited for buses that never arrived. "It's very frustrating ... you know we're on vacation and we want to do whatever we can to help the country," said New Yorker Sandy Brown, wearing an orange T-shirt to show her opposition to the withdrawal.

A few dozen protesters began walking in the direction of Gaza, more than 60 miles away.

At the entrance to Jerusalem, police, including some on horseback, held back a crowd of about 100 demonstrators who briefly blocked traffic.

Meanwhile, Egyptian mediators made apparent progress in talks with Hamas militants aimed at reviving a truce shaken by suddenly escalating violence. Rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza dipped noticeably on Monday.

After Monday's meeting, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said the group is "still committed" to the cease-fire, adding that Hamas reserves the right to "retaliate against any violation and any Israeli aggression."

In Gaza violence Monday, Palestinian medics said Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old boy near an Israeli settlement. The military said soldiers fired in front of cars trying to run a roadblock but did not see pedestrians there. Asked about the incident, Zahar did not threaten a reprisal.

Israeli troops were massed on the Gaza border after last weekend's attacks, but Vice Premier Ehud Olmert took a conciliatory tone in an interview with The Associated Press.

He said he hopes Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will stop the attacks. "If he will stop it, we will not have to interfere," Olmert said.