Evacuation notice: Please follow me to bus

IDF prepares to seal off Gaza Strip; in coming two days, soldiers to handle evacuees with kid gloves

By Hanan Greenberg|Published: 08.14.05 , 19:20

The IDF has been preparing Sunday to seal off the Gaza Strip later in the evening, a move that marks the first step ahead of settlement evacuation. After two days where troops will ask evacuees to leave their homes and offer them a helping end, the evacuation will get under way, by force if necessary.

This is what the evacuation notice to be read by IDF officers as they approach settler homes starting August 17 will sound like:

“I, (rank and name), came here in accordance with a government decision and by law. I ask you to accompany me to the bus that will take you away. I am aware of the difficulty and pain associated with leaving your homes. If you need any help in carrying objects I have a team with me that would assist you.”

'There will be dialogue'

The IDF chose to codename the evacuation operation “Brotherly Hand,” with mixed teams of army and police forces going house to house informing families they must leave.

“There will be dialogue, we’ll offer any assistance and explain to them that it’s better for them to leave now with their private vehicle, after they pack their belongings by themselves,” an IDF source said.

Army officials believe that in the coming two days, many families who are still in Gush Katif will be departing.

“They have no interest in clashing with the soldiers that guarded them. Some of them are unable to leave and are waiting for that knock on the door,” an army source said. “We’ll be there, we’ll be ready to bring stuff down from the attic, anything they ask for.”

Halutz holds final talk

IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Sunday during a final talk with senior commanders slated to take part in the upcoming pullout, that the "Brotherly hand" mission scheduled for the 15-16 August will not be extended over and above the original time allocated by the IDF.

"When mission Brotherly Hand is over, we will have to move over to the phase that is hard, and it will force us all to go from one way of thinking to another," he said.

"I’m not saying that the shift will mean that we use force, but it will obligate us to put most of the sensitivity aside, and replace it with determination, because in the next two days, there is no room for determination," he said.