GAZA - IDF Southern Command Chief Dan Harel has signed an order banning Israelis from moving to Gaza Strip settlements slated for evacuation.
The decree comes in the framework of steps that are meant to facilitate the government’s pullout decision.
According to the order, effective immediately, Israelis can no longer make Gaza Strip their home. Accordingly, Israelis who attempt to change their residential address at the Interior Ministry would not be permitted to do so, while the police prepare to block any attempts to move to the Gush Katif settlement bloc.
Notably, the Gush Katif population increased by about 10 percent since the disengagement plan was declared, with most new arrivals moving there in recent months. About 100 families reportedly settled in several Gaza Strip communities in an effort to thwart the planned pullout.
Settlers slam IDF order
The order was reportedly issued at this time - about four months before the evacuation - in light of security establishment estimates that many pullout objectors may attempt to move to Gush Katif in the coming weeks.
Gaza communities, meanwhile, have begun preparing new residences in a bid to accommodate the newcomers expected to arrive in the area. Settlers are hoping that bringing large numbers of new residents to areas slated for evacuation would turn the disengagement plan into a more complex and possibly impossible mission.
Gaza Shore Regional Council Spokesman Eran Sternberg, meanwhile, slammed the IDF order.
“About 120 years after Czarist Russia decided…where Jews may and may not live, the Israeli government also becomes a party to the decree,” he said
-Efrat Weiss also contributed to this report
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