NASA pushes next flight to 2006 to understand foam loss problem

KFAR DAROM, Gaza Strip -- Riot troops stormed synagogues in two hardline Jewish settlements Thursday to evict hundreds of militant holdouts who locked arms in a human chain and pelted soldiers with acid, oil and sand, the most violent clashes in Israel's historic Gaza pullout.

By the close of the day, 14,000 unarmed forces had cleared all but four of Gaza's 21 settlements -- including Kfar Darom and Neve Dekalim, pillars of resistance to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to cede Gaza to the Palestinians and alter the course of Mideast peacemaking.

Dozens of protesters at Kfar Darom sequestered themselves behind razor-wire on the synagogue roof, at first singing and waving flags, then attacking soldiers below with their arsenal of caustic liquids and objects, including paint-filled lightbulbs.

Breaking the siege, army cranes lowered metal cages filled with helmeted troops onto the roof, as cannons sprayed protesters with blasts of blue-tinted water. Other troops carrying wire cutters climbed ladders that became slick with oil.

At Neve Dekalim, troops wrestled for hours against some 1,500 extremists making their last stand inside Gaza's largest synagogue. Protesters lay on the floor with their arms linked, kicking against the Israeli forces while supporters held their shoulders in a tug-of-war.

After breaking the human chain, troops dragged protesters out of the synagogue one by one, holding them by their arms and legs as they twisted and squirmed. Other protesters chanted "blasphemy, blasphemy." One religious soldier, who wore a skullcap, suffered a panic attack and was taken away by medics.

Outside, teenage girls confronted a wall of troops surrounding the building, waving their fists and screaming, "You're driving Jews out of a synagogue. The last time this happened was the Holocaust. ... You're Jews, you have a Jewish heart, you don't have to do this."

For years, 8,500 Israelis lived among Gaza's 1.3 million Palestinians in perpetual tension and frequently lethal violence. The standoff at the synagogues was a symbolic climax to the withdrawal operation that started Monday, since many of the settlers are Orthodox Jews who believe Gaza is the biblical birthright of the Jewish people.

Thursday's evictions leave several hundred people still in Gaza. Evictions of the remaining four settlements, which will be suspended before this evening for the Jewish Sabbath, could be completed by next week, officials said -- far earlier than planned.

President Bush was receiving regular updates on the withdrawal, White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told reporters in Crawford, Texas.

"We understand the deep sentiments that are felt and the difficulty one feels when leaving their home," she said. "We agree that the disengagement will only make Israel stronger. We agree with Prime Minister Sharon on that. And the president has also said that this will bring our two countries closer together."

At least 41 police and soldiers and 17 civilians were injured during Thursday's raids on six settlements, including Neve Dekalim and Kfar Darom, police said. In Kfar Darom, about 50 people were arrested.

"What we saw here crossed all boundaries," said Maj. Gen. Dan Harel. "Everybody who was now on the roof will be arrested and put in prison." He said several troops were wounded by acid.

The daylong rooftop standoff recalled images from 1982 when Israeli troops evacuated Yamit, an Israeli town build on the coast of the Sinai Peninsula that was being returned to Egypt under a peace treaty between the two countries. That was the first time Israelis saw their army fighting their own civilians, and the army was equipped only with ladders to storm the roof -- a lesson learned this time.

As cranes lowered the cages of troops, other soldiers with wire cutters climbed ladders, which protesters tried to topple as they poured sand, oil and white paint onto troops from buckets and gasoline canisters.

The some 14,000 police and soldiers taking part in the evacuation were trained to withstand abuse and be considerate of the settler's rage and sorrow at being ripped from their homes.

But while forces remained impassive overall, Police Chief Moshe Karadi said patience wore thin with the display of violence at Kfar Darom. After two days of gentle persuasion, "from the moment when the dialogue ended, restraint also ended."

Sensitive to restrictions among religious Jews on the mixing of the sexes, security forces deployed women soldiers and police to evacuate the scores of women crammed into the Neve Dekalim synagogue. Only male soldiers were allowed to touch the men, said police spokesman Avi Zelba.

Some Israelis were offended that the extremists chose houses of worship as their last redoubt. But experts on Judaism say it's not necessarily taboo for a synagogue to be used as a place of refuge.

In another standoff, at the beachfront settlement of Kfar Yam, settler Aryeh Yitzhaki clambered onto his roof at with an M-16 rifle slung over his shoulder. Three other extremists accompanied him.

"No one can ask me to hand over my weapon," he told Israel's Channel Two TV, speaking by mobile phone. "I have said very clearly that I will do everything to stop the uprooting, to stop it with my body."

He held off police for hours before negotiators persuaded him and the others to surrender and get on an evacuation bus.

Most of the extremists battling the troops Thursday came from Israel or the West Bank to reinforce the resistance. Faced with the threat of a loss of government compensation for their houses, the majority of settlers left Gaza before a deadline Sunday or during the two following days of grace before the forced evictions began.

Residents of Netzer Hazani set fire to homes, garbage and tires as columns of soldiers entered the settlement.

In Shirat Hayam, a small but hardline settlement, troops brought in a hydraulic platform to bring down more than dozen protesters singing and chanting on a rooftop. In a nursery school, one young girl screamed, "You can't throw us out of our house."

The army sent in a bulldozer to douse flames raging from a barricade at the entrance. When the bulldozer arrived, settlers threw balloons with red and white paint at it.

One man collapsed in the sand in tears after soldiers came to evacuate him. "This is the land of Israel, people, this is the land of Israel," he shouted. "I just want to stay here."