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Hundreds of soldiers and paramilitary police moved
in on the derelict Palm Beach
Hotel in a move to dislodge
Jewish extremist protesters holed up inside.
Israel radio reported the soldiers went room to room in the hotel in
their search, dragging out the squatters - some of them kicking and
screaming. The protesters were then loaded onto buses.
Hundreds of Jewish religious and nationalist extremists, mostly from
West Bank enclaves converged
on Gaza in recent weeks. They took over the dilapidated beachfront hotel as a
headquarters for their protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan
to dismantle Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank in August.
Nadia Matar of the right-wing group Women in Green was one of the
militants inside the hotel. Earlier, she defended their action on Israel
radio. "We are going to do the same thing as you would do, if forces would
come to your house, take you out of your house and give it over to the
Hamas," she said.
Just a few hours before the raid, the army declared Gaza settlements to
be "closed military zones", allowing only residents into the area and
severely restricting their movement. The army hopes to stop right-wing
extremists from entering the area to carry out their anti-disengagement
protests.
On Wednesday, the army's attempt to dislodge some of the extremists led
to violence as protesters clashed with soldiers and Palestinian residents.
In one instance extremists were shown kicking, beating and stoning
a young Palestinian from a nearby home, leaving him seriously injured. The
image outraged Ariel Sharon who called the attack an "act of savagery,
vulgarity and
irresponsibility." He ordered a crackdown to stop the extremists.
The head of the prime minister's office of strategic coordination,
Brigadier General Eival Giladi, told journalists that opponents of the
disengagement plan have a right to protest, but have gone too far. "I
think there is a very clear red line - where you cross the legal threshold when you fight your own
institutions I would say. This is something totally unaccepted and we will
not let it go," he said.
In an interview with the Haaretz daily, Prime Minister Sharon said the
violence is not about opposition to his plan to get out of Gaza, but
rather about the image and future of Israel. He added that the government
must take "every measure necessary" to end the violence and stop the
extremists. | 
