Evacuating Neve Dekalim
צילום: אפרת וייס
Neve Dekalim a ghost town
Streets empty in Gush Katif's largest community as families struggle to pack before saying goodbye
Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif's "capital," is slowly turning into a ghost town.
The houses are empty, stores are closed, and the Gaza regional council building is locked up. Smoke can be seen here and there, while large police and army troops are on the streets, assisting residents who still haven't left.
Indeed, Neve Dekalim is breathing its last breaths, before the area is transferred to Palestinian control.
On the sidewalk behind the commercial center, whose roof has turned since Sunday into a large television studio where the difficult images are broadcast from, a Military Police team marches on, against a backdrop of incessant submachine fire directed at the outskirts of nearby Khan Younis.
Suddenly, a young man appears, an infiltrator who does not live here.
"Identity card, please," the commander tells him. "I don't have one. I'm getting out of here and taking off," he says. The soldiers, who have learned from previous experiences, don't believe him and accompany him to the bus reserved for illegal infiltrators.
'25 years in the army and that's what you get'
At the "Torat Haim" yeshiva, a group of young infiltrators hides in the yard. They stand behind a wall, waiting for a soldier or officer to pass, hurl a stone and disappear into one of the yeshiva's deserted rooms. The troops guarding a nearby structure don't appear overly excited.
When the next two stones land by our feet, we ask them to check what's going on.
"We can't, our job is to guard this structure. We're not allowed to leave," one of them tells us. Meanwhile, the boys, 17 or 18 years old, continue to hurl stones, while forces fail to intervene.
At the Weiss family home, a commotion ensues. Moshe Weiss is yelling at the soldiers, who ask him to pack quickly. He tells them to get lost.
"You serve in the army for 25 years and that's what you get," he says, while his wife cries and his children attempt to calm tensions.
"I will not forgive or forget what you're doing to us here and now," Weiss says. "They picked us up, put us in boxes. They don't even know who we are, they don't know our name," he yells while throwing military objects he collected throughout his army service at the embarassed troops.
Someone dispatches a paramedic, another one calls in a rabbi recruited by the police in order to mediate. They too would not be able to meet the army's deadline. After all, the evacuation of ghost town Neve Dekalim must be completed by Thursday night.
