ISRAELI special forces are prepared to shoot to kill Jewish settlers if they come under fire during next month’s evacuation of 22 settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Members of Israel’s feared Duvdevan (Cherry) commando unit, who have concentrated on hunting Palestinian militants on the West Bank, are training for the evacuation at a dummy settlement in a remote desert location.

The commandos, who have killed hundreds of Palestinian militants over the years, are now being told to be ready to open fire on Israelis — but only in response to an attack on fellow soldiers.

“First our commanders asked if any of us thought he could not take part in the disengagement of Gaza,” one of the members of the unit said last week. “Obviously nobody refused as we are volunteers, but I must admit that while we were happy to kill the bastards in the West Bank, we hope to be unemployed in August.”

Under plans for the pull-out, details of which have been obtained by The Sunday Times, every house in the 22 settlements marked for evacuation will be approached by a team of army and police officers. A warrant will be presented to its inhabitants, who will then be asked to evacuate the building immediately.

“We strongly believe that the majority of the families will obey the warrant and leave their houses at once,” said one security source. “Those who refuse to do so will be removed forcibly by the police to a nearby bus to take them out of Gaza.”

Although the overwhelming majority of the settlers are expected to comply, security sources believe that a hard core of about 200 could attempt serious violence, requiring the intervention of the commandos.

“The main job will be to look out for snipers and that’s what we have been training for,” said one member of the unit.

“Here the rules of the game are very different from what we are used to in the West Bank. There, we shoot to kill the moment we spot the bad guy. In Gaza, if we spot an armed settler about to open fire we must aim at his hand and only when there is no other choice shoot to kill.”

Dressed in plain clothes and sporting the beards and skullcaps favoured by the settlers, the commandos will try to identify troublemakers and pull them out of the crowd.

Since last week a massive operation has been under way to eavesdrop on the settlers’ communications. It is expected that during the evacuation the security forces will jam mobile telephone communications apart from their own.

Further intelligence will come from the giant unmanned aerial vehicle normally used to watch Palestinian militants, which will transmit data to nearby army headquarters.

Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, has pushed ahead with the pull-out despite fierce opposition not just from the settlers but also from within his own Likud party. Polls show that most Israelis support him, even though right-wing critics oppose ceding any land captured during the 1967 six day war.

Washington hopes that the withdrawal will spur renewed peace moves. During a visit to Israel and the West Bank this weekend, Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, urged both Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to work more closely together on the pull-out and ensure that Gaza would be linked to the West Bank afterwards. She urged both men to resist any efforts by terrorists to destroy “this moment of hope”.

Israel is insisting that Abbas’s security forces keep militants under control during the evacuation. The Palestinian leader has said he will co-operate, but he has only a tenuous grip on the militias.

As if to demonstrate Abbas’s impotence, last night Palestinian gunmen ambushed a vehicle on one of the main roads out of Gaza. Two Israelis died and four were wounded in the attack, jointly claimed by Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Israel retaliated by firing a missile at the Khan Younis refugee camp.

But for Sharon the nightmare is the spilling of Israeli blood by Israeli hands. If even one of the zealots opens fire and a soldier or settler dies, the Israeli public may never forgive him.

“We were told that our mission is no less important than our fight against the Palestinians,” said one of the commandos. “With the Palestinians we succeeded. I’m not so sure about this operation. We were trained to kill militants. I don’t know how good we are at doing the same to our own brothers.”

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?