TENS of thousand of Israelis are expected to set off tomorrow on a three-day march in an attempt to frustrate next month’s enforced withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

The march, expected to be one of the largest protests the country has seen, comes as right-wing members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, attempt to force postponement of the pull-out.

Organisers of the 30-mile trek from Hebron in the West Bank to the Gaza Strip said they were hoping to attract 50,000 people, ranging from the elderly to children. “We’ll show the government that Jews do not deport Jews, and with God’s help we’ll prevent the deportation,” said one.

The marchers, who will bring food, water and tents, hope to enter Gush Katif, the main bloc of Gaza Strip settlements. “We won’t fight the soldiers,“ said Zvika Bar-Hai, one of the organisers. “If we are blocked, then we’ll camp at the entrances to Gaza the whole month.”

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to stand firm. “The withdrawal will take place and will be carried out on time,” he said on Israeli television. It is due to start on August 15.

The protests coincide with heightened tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinians accused Israel of provocation after six militants were killed in airstrikes that followed a suicide bombing in which five Israelis died on Tuesday and a rocket attack that killed an Israeli woman on Thursday.

Palestinian police trying to stop rockets from being fired fought a gun battle with Hamas supporters that left two dead in Gaza City on Friday.

Yesterday Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defence minister, told army commanders to plan for a ground operation but said any raid would be delayed to give the Palestinians time to take action themselves.

The Israeli authorities declared the Gaza Strip a closed military zone last week and deployed thousands of police and army at roadblocks to keep out the marchers. No Israeli is now allowed into the Gaza Strip unless they can prove they live there.

The protesters, most of them from settlements in the West Bank, were resting during the Jewish Sabbath yesterday in preparation for their long walk. “On Monday we’ll begin to march towards our besieged brothers in Gaza,” said Bar-Hai. “We plan to reach Gaza on Wednesday. We know the way and we’ll try to get in.”

In the Gaza Strip, the 8,000 settlers were eagerly awaiting their arrival. “It will be difficult to evacuate 8,000,” said one. “If we bring in 50,000 supporters the deportation will be called off.”

Noga Cohen is determined not to leave her home in the Kfar Darom settlement. Three of her children, now aged 17, 10 and eight, lost their legs in an attack by Palestinian militants on their school bus four years ago. “If my children asked me today what they lost their legs for, I’m not sure I would have a good answer to give them,” she said.

“If Sharon forces us out, my child, the one who was not injured by the terrorists, will have to return here as a soldier and re-conquer this place from the Palestinians.”

A poll released this weekend showed 86% of the 1,700 families who must leave their homes in less than four weeks did not yet have anywhere to go and 58% said Israeli soldiers should refuse military orders to evacuate the settlements.

Since Sharon designated the Gaza Strip a closed military zone, settlers must show identity cards at the checkpoints to reach their homes. Last week, a woman settler refused to show hers: instead she had written her identity number on her arm in imitation of the Nazi practice of branding numbers on concentration camp inmates. The security forces checked her ID number and let her through.

Such implied comparisons with Nazi horrors have infuriated Jews who lived through the Holocaust.

Construction work to house thousands of demonstrators in Gaza continued throughout last week in Gush Katif’s settlements.

The march has also received support from a senior rabbi. Shmuel Eliyahu said: “If a soldier’s conscience tells him not to remove settlers, he must refrain from doing so even if it means disobeying an order.”

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