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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: redfish who wrote (9684)	8/12/2005 12:11:57 PM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Agreed. Editorializing isn't really required of those who so readily identify themselves for all to see: On the war front: Security forces: Zero tolerance for Gaza infiltrators By Amos Harel The Israel Defense Forces yesterday ceased issuing permits for visits to the Gaza Strip settlements, effectively admitting that it has failed to prevent the permits from being exploited to enable thousands of people to infiltrate from outside Gaza. Dealing with these infiltrators, using all necessary force, will be the evacuating forces' first assignment when the pullout begins next week, a senior police source said. Advertisement The police and the IDF have no precise estimate of how many people have managed to enter the Gush Katif settlement bloc, but their best guess is around 2,700. The police do not intend "to play games" with these infiltrators, the source said, but will instead remove them immediately. For the next three days, until the Strip is sealed completely before dawn on Monday, the only Israelis allowed in will be residents of the settlements, providers of essential services - including movers - and rescue service personnel. No visitors will be allowed, even if they are first-degree relatives of settlement residents. The IDF Spokesman said that this decision was due to the fact that many visitors had abused their permits by remaining in the settlements even after the permits expired. Police officers, speaking off the record, charged that the generous issuance of permits had been naive to begin with, enabling many pullout opponents to infiltrate. The only solution, the senior police source told Haaretz, is to act harshly against the infiltrators the moment the evacuation begins. "We are obliged to be as sensitive as possible to Gush [Katif] residents, in light of what is happening to them," he said. "But the treatment of infiltrators will be completely different. These are lawbreakers, whose entire goal is to disrupt the evacuation. There is no place for negotiations with them. The policy will be zero tolerance." A senior IDF officer said that he was worried by the number of infiltrators. "I don't know how to explain exactly how it happened, but in recent days, there has been a flood of new additions," he said. "Hundreds of infiltrators reached Kfar Darom. In Neveh Dekalim, there are at least 300 people from the Hebron area alone." He therefore cautioned that commanders should refrain from premature boasting. "True, most of the settlers are leaving. But even though I'm sure that we will fulfill our assignment, the infiltrators will yet make more than a little trouble for us," he said. Army sources said that the most likely centers of resistance to the evacuation are the settlements of Kfar Darom, Shirat Yam and Kerem Atzmona and the outsiders who have entered Neveh Dekalim and Morag. In the other settlements, especially the secular ones, there has been a growing wave of voluntary departures in recent days. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered commanders yesterday to display "maximum flexibility" toward settlers who want to leave and to help them overcome bureaucratic obstacles. He said that the troops must make every effort to evacuate all the Gaza settlements, as well as the four in the northern West Bank that are slated for evacuation, within two and a half weeks, i.e. by September 4, instead of utilizing the full four weeks called for in the original timetable. The order in which the settlements will be evacuated will be determined only at the start of next week. Yesterday, the army was considering a change in plan, under which two divisions of evacuating forces would be sent first to Gush Katif instead of to the three northern Gaza settlements. Most residents of the latter have already left, and therefore, a large force may not be needed to deal with them.