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Gaza activists get ultimatum
18/08/2005 12:42 - (SA)
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| Israeli police on horseback pass by the synagogue where hard-liners have barricaded themselves in the southern Gaza Strip. (Baz Ratner, AP) |
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Neve Dekalim Settlement - Police on Thursday served hundreds of young activists with a one-hour ultimatum to leave a synagogue in the largest Gaza settlement before they forcibly evict them.
"Get the people ready," Uri Barlev, police chief for Israel's southern district, told settler ringleader Hanan Porat.
If the occupants were not out within an hour as agreed "the police will enter", Barlev was overheard telling Porat by a crowd of journalists.
Israeli forces have long been poised to launch an assault on the Neve Dekalim synagogue complex where young activists have been holed up to block their forcible evacuation from the Gaza Strip.
Police and soldiers have surrounded the complex, where hundreds of youths were massed on the roof and the balconies, waving flags and banners protesting at Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian territory after a 38-year occupation.
About a dozen people have been detained in the standoff, a police source said.
"It will not be an Israeli in Israel who bans a Jew from praying in a synagogue," protestor Yoel Kling said of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose plan to leave Gaza has divided the Jewish nation.
Police spokesperson Shai Itzkovitz said 1 040 people were evacuated on Wednesday from Neve Dekalim, which was originally home to 2 500 settlers.
- AFP
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