Army Moves to Clear Yamit Region

The Israeli army moved in earnest today to evacuate several thousand civilian die-hards from the Yamit region of northern Sinai which must be handed over to Egypt next Sunday The operation, code-named “Red Dove,” is commanded by Maj. Gen. Haim Erez, commander of the southern district, who predicted it would take “several days.”

Erez warned his troops that this was not a war and the squatters are not the enemy. He expressed hope, however, that they would not use young children as a shield to prevent the soldiers from carrying out their orders.

There were few eye-witness accounts of the events today because the media has been barred from the region, astensibly to prevent the reinfiltration of militants previously evacuated. This raised a storm of protest from both the Israeli and foreign press corps.

It was learned, however, that three villages in the vicinity of Yamit were emptied this morning. Troops removed 22 families from Talmei Yosef. Some of them were lifted off rooftops in cages lowered by mobile cranes. Others were dragged from houses. One resident who threatened to kill himself was allowed to remain.

All residents were removed from Sadot village, except the family of Vita and Ella Weitzman who are the unofficial spokespersons for the “Halt the Withdrawal” movement. They are are not squatters but veteran Yamit area settlers. They said they had the area commander’s personal permission to remain until Wednesday. The village of Ugda was deserted but for one holdout family removed by troops this morning.

Because of the press ban most information was obtained from squatters or residents as they were transported out of the area by troops. In Itzmona village, which is expected to be evacuated by nightfall, squatters went about their business seemingly oblivious to the approach of Israeli troops. They continued planting trees and prepared to harvest a melon crop later this week.

SITUATION IN YAMIT

The army has not yet moved on Yamit itself, the largest town in northern Sinai,where more than 3,000 settlers and squatters are reported to have barricaded themselves for a confrontation with Israeli troops. Most of the squatters there, militants of the “Halt the Withdrawal” movement, have said they would offer only passive resistance. Apparently they will not budge but will allow themselves to be carried bodily to waiting army vehicles.

A group of yeshiva students, led by Zachi Hanegbi, barricaded themselves in the remains of a dismantled war memorial in Yamit and promised “surprises” for the troops. Hanegbi is the son of Knesset member Geula Cohen of the ultranationalist Tehiya faction.

Another group of young Orthodox Jews, many of them American-born, who are members of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach faction, are barricaded in a booby-trapped air raid shelter and have threatened mass suicide if troops attempt to remove them. They have summoned Kahane from the U.S. to join them.

Kahane himself says there is a warrant for his arrest if he tries to enter Israel. He was reportedly in Washington today to appeal to the Israeli Ambassador, Moshe Arens, to have the warrant lifted.

Israeli and foreign reporters, encamped at Kerem Shalom just outside the Yamit region, are watching the town through telescopes. The Foreign Press Association, the Israel Editors Committee and the Israel Journalists Association have lodged protests against the press ban with Premier Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon reportedly invited journalists to accompany him on a visit to Yamit tomorrow.

While the soldiers evacuated civilians from Yamit area villages, bull-dozers moved in to complete the demolition of houses and communal structures which might be used by infiltrators Meanwhile, Bedouin tribesmen of the region are standing by, ready to strip the remains of any objects of value not already transported away or destroyed.