Israel Tightens Access to Gaza Strip Settlements as Withdrawal Looms

The Israeli military tightened restrictions Tuesday on entry to the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip, decreeing that only resident settlers and their immediate families may go in.

The order came amid a rash of infiltrations by opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate the settlements beginning in three weeks. Settler activists from the West Bank, many of them pledging to forcibly resist the withdrawal, have been slipping into Gaza on foot or in the trunks of cars.

Military officials said an estimated 2,000 people are in the Gaza settlements illegally, swelling the enclave’s population to about 10,000. This month, authorities declared Gaza a closed military zone, but most outsiders who had obtained permits were allowed into the settlements.

Many have overstayed those permits or are making their way in clandestinely. On Monday, soldiers at a checkpoint found two teenage girls hiding under sacks of carrots in the back of a truck. The girls and the vehicle’s driver were detained for questioning.

Activists have set up several tent camps in Gush Katif, the main settlement block, rattling not only Israeli authorities but also some resident settlers, who fear extremists will clash with police and soldiers when the evacuation begins.

With the mid-August deadline looming, Israeli troops Tuesday held their largest drill yet to prepare for the pullout. At a mock settlement at an army base in the Negev desert, thousands of soldiers split into small teams and practiced various scenarios for removing families from their homes.

The settlers are to be notified Aug. 15 that they have 48 hours to leave, and authorities say they expect most to do so voluntarily. Those who stay will be physically carried out if necessary, military officials said.

“We will act with restraint and patience, but we will not waver in our determination,” said Hagai Dotan, the ranking police commander at the exercise.

Emotions are running high over the planned withdrawal, which has become Israel’s most politically polarizing event in years. Although polls indicate a solid majority supports the pullout, opponents have been employing increasingly extreme tactics to try to prevent it.

A group of right-wing activists drew widespread condemnation Tuesday when they announced that they had carried out an arcane ceremony meant to place a death curse on the prime minister.

Although few Israelis believe in the Kabbalistic hex, which is known in Aramaic as the pulsa denura, any mention of it has traumatic associations for many here. Right-wing rabbis leveled a similar curse against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shortly before his assassination by a young ultranationalist Jew nearly 10 years ago.

Michael Ben-Horin, who lives in the Golan Heights, told Israel Radio that a group of about 20 anti-withdrawal activists had gathered last week to perform the ceremony, in which they called on “angels of destruction” to kill Sharon.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, who opposes the Gaza pullout, called the pulsa denura a “terrible and awful thing,” saying it could be construed as a “license to kill.” At least one left-wing lawmaker, Ran Cohen, called for the ceremony’s participants to be indicted.

While Israel tries to cope with its own right-wing extremists, the Palestinian Authority is struggling to keep a lid on attacks by Palestinian militant groups. Any flare-up of fighting could complicate the Gaza pullout.

On Tuesday, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, told lawmakers he believed that Hamas, the largest of the militant groups, had an interest in maintaining calm in Gaza during the withdrawal. However, the intelligence chief, Yuval Diskin, said assessments were that Hamas would escalate its anti-Israel activities in the West Bank during that period.

Palestinian security forces have long been regarded as ill-equipped to deal with any serious challenge from the militant groups. A study released Tuesday by a U.S.-based conflict-resolution group, the Strategic Assessments Initiative, echoed that view, citing problems ranging from low morale to infighting.

Palestinians, however, said the study failed to take into account reforms initiated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who took office six months ago.