What happened?
Israeli troops began evacuating Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip this week, dragging many settlers from their homes and loading them, kicking and screaming, onto buses. The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had declared that as of midnight, Aug. 14, it would be illegal for Israeli citizens to remain in the Palestinian territory, but as the deadline passed, only around 50 percent of the 9,000 settlers had left voluntarily. In one settlement, a 54-year-old woman was in critical condition after setting herself on fire. Thousands of settlers and other protesters yelled at the soldiers, calling them criminals and begging them to leave. But as The Week went to press, the evacuation of Gaza appeared to be proceeding on schedule.
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