Hundreds of Gaza pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind rolls of barbed wire in the synagogue of this hardline Jewish settlement yesterday, as security forces dragged screaming residents out of homes and settlers elsewhere burned houses, fields and tires in protest.
On the second day of removing settlers by force, troops encountered stiffer resistance than at the start of the operation. However, security officials said they expected to clear out all 21 Gaza settlements by Tuesday, more than two weeks ahead of schedule.
By nightfall, troops planned to have cleared out 18 of Gaza's 21 settlements, police said.
Yesterday, troops entered several of the most hardline Gaza communities.
In the farming settlement of Netzer Hazani, protesters set fire to barricades, fields and houses, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air. Youths in Shirat Hayam, a hardline beachfront outpost, burned tires and garbage. In Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest settlement, a standoff with hundreds of teenage extremists, continued into a second day.
There was relatively little violence in Gaza on Wednesday -- though a Jewish extremist in the West Bank shot dead four Palestinians in an apparent attempt to disrupt the Gaza pullout.
In Kfar Darom, where protesters barricaded themselves inside a synagogue, the army set up a special command center, and the army chief, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, personally oversaw the operation. Soldiers formed several cordons around him to shield him from shouting settlers.
Thousands of soldiers had entered the settlement at dawn and quickly encircled the synagogue and two nearby buildings.
Just a few meters outside Kfar Darom, dozens of Palestinians stood on the roofs of their houses watching the evacuation.
"For the first time in the last few years I'm standing here without any fear that Israelis will shoot at me because their battle today is against themselves," said Mohammed Bashir, a Palestinian farmer.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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