Gaza pull-out opponents protest

Thousands of cars lined the sides of Israel's main roads during evening rush hour yesterday in the widest protest so far against the planned evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Anti-pull-out campaigners, hoping to show their strength, had urged motorists to pull over and "pause" for 15 minutes to consider the justification for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "Disengagement Plan."

In another challenge to the pull-out due to begin in mid-August, rightist Jews set up a new Gaza outpost at a site where troops had clashed with settlers on Sunday while razing buildings to prepare for withdrawal from the occupied territory.

Witnesses said 30 defiant Jewish nationalists moved into an abandoned holiday cottage and planted a flag on the roof close to the ruins of 11 other old bungalows bulldozed on the beach opposite the Gush Katif settlement bloc.

Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, commander of Israeli forces in Gaza, told Israel Radio the army would move against the outpost, which he described as an improvised tent, "when the time is right".

Israeli authorities fear that a recent influx of rightists into the Gaza enclaves housing 8,500 settlers could complicate the evacuation and heighten the risk of violence.

At intersections across Israel, protesters held signs reading "Jews don't expel Jews," as traffic continued to move past vehicles that drivers had pulled onto the shoulders.

Live television showed cars bunched up on the sides of major highways but organisers said there was no intent to block traffic, and there was no sign of the burning tyres that marked attempts in the past by some activists to block roads.

Police, who were ordered not to intervene but to photograph cars and issue traffic citations later by mail, said that in Jerusalem alone, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the main entrance to the city. Police did not give a nationwide figure.