KFAR DAROM SETTLEMENT, Gaza Strip, 19 August 2005 — Jewish protesters blockaded in a Gaza Strip synagogue yesterday threw acid at police in the most violent confrontations since Israel began its historic pullout from the territory.

The incident in the isolated settlement of Kfar Darom came after troops climbed up ladders to the roof of the synagogue where radical Jews were holding out in defiance of orders to evacuate all settlements in the Gaza Strip.

But it appeared that Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory it has occupied for 38 years was now proceeding at a remorseless pace, with about half the 21 settlements reportedly empty.

The scenes of Jewish soldiers locked in confrontation with settlers and their sympathizers were repeated elsewhere in Gaza, with security forces finding themselves the targets of insults, rotten eggs, and tins of food.

“We have several policemen who have been wounded by acid and we will apply the full force of the law,” Gen. Dan Harel, in charge of the pullout, told reporters. Police officers said 24 of their force had been wounded.

Some officers could be seen leaving the synagogue in only their underwear and were seen washing themselves down with water after they were sprayed with acid.

In dramatic scenes, a massive container attached to a crane was used to bring the troops onto the roof of the synagogue, while security forces sprayed colored water at the settlers in a bid to subdue them.

A young woman clutching her child was among those who were herded out of the synagogue, whose foundation stone was ironically laid by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the settlers’ one-time champion now turned foe.

But as the brilliant blue skies gave way to nightfall, it appeared that the security forces had gained the upper hand, with screaming protesters being hauled out one-by-one by their hands and feet to waiting coaches.

One Israeli soldier was seen refusing to carry out his orders to drag out the settlers before being pulled away by other soldiers and policemen.

Similar dramatic scenes were also played out at the synagogue in the main settlement of Neve Dekalim, as Israeli forces pushed forward with the first ever withdrawal from occupied Palestinian land that many Jews believe was promised to them by God.

There, teenage and adult religious Jews were being carried out by their arms and legs, screaming abuse at the unarmed police who raided the synagogue after the estimated 2,000 inside defied an ultimatum to leave voluntarily and end a two-day standoff.

Israeli troops also cleared the beachside settlement of Shirat Hayam, believed to be the most radical of all, dragging settlers out of their homes and manhandling them onto buses.

“Shame on you,” shrieked residents as an army bulldozer smashed its way into Netzer Hazani, the oldest settlement in the land seized by Israel in the 1967 war.

In the Kfar Yam settlement, scores of Israeli soldiers raided a house where an armed Jewish settler and around 30 people, including children, had barricaded themselves inside.

On the second day of the forcible clearance of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, seven settlements had been completely evacuated, while four others are virtually empty.

Palestinians have welcomed the pullout as a victory for the resistance to four decades of Israeli occupation, while the international community hopes it will mark a new page in efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

Some 70 percent of the estimated 8,000 settlers have left, public radio reported, although their numbers were swelled by around 5,000 infiltrators. All Israelis are to be evacuated by Tuesday, it said.

A West Bank settler who gunned down four Palestinians on the first day of the forcible evacuation on Wednesday said he had no remorse. “I am not sorry for what I have done. I wanted to stop the pullout and I hope someone murders Sharon as well,” Asher Weisgan told reporters as he was brought by police to a court near Tel Aviv.