about the plight of thousands of children of families evacuated from 25 Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria as Israel announced it would conclude the historic withdrawal by early next week. The Israeli pullout from the area, demanded under an international peace plan, has lead to suffering among children, the ICEJ said.
"We are particularly concerned about how over 2,500 school-age children will adjust to their new surroundings this fall, and Israeli school and social workers are already approaching us for help," said ICEJ, an evangelical Christian group supporting Israel and the Jewish people.
In a statement to BosNewsLife News Center, the ICEJ added it intended to "collect donations worldwide to assist the children of the disengagement, while exploring here in the land the best ways to meet their most urgent needs – material, educational, and psychological."
GAZA "DRAMA"
The ICEJ stressed it "watched the drama of the Gaza disengagement unfold with aching hearts for the people and communities we knew. Just a few short weeks earlier [our social] workers had sat in the Neve Dekalim home of a community representative with whom we worked in recent times to fund projects in the Gush Katif" settlement.
It came as Israeli troops demolished the last military installations in the Gaza Strip on Friday, September 9, as part of preparations to complete the withdrawal by early next week after taking the area 38 years ago, news reports said. Soldiers now left without bases and guard posts were to remain in armored vehicles until the withdrawal is completed by Tuesday, September 13, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The head of Israel’s forces in Gaza, Brigadier-General Aviv Kochavi, will be the last soldier to leave the coastal strip and will lock the gate of the Kissufim border crossing in a small ceremony, AP said.
FINAL PULL OUT
However Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Friday, September 9, the final pullout could be delayed by a day because of uncertainty over the fate of more than two dozen synagogues in Gaza’s demolished Jewish settlements.
Last month Benjamin Netanyahu stepped down as Israel’s finance minister in a last-minute protest against the Gaza pullout. But his stunned Cabinet colleagues pushed ahead and approved the withdrawal plan moments later.
Christians have been divided over the withdrawal from Gaza, with some scholars claiming that the Bible shows a future Israel will have different borders and a larger area. One of the most vocal influential evangelical Christians, American television preacher Pat Robertson, said last year in Jerusalem that "only God should decide if Israel should relinquish control of the lands it captured in the 1967 war, including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem."
In an apparent reference to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of Gaza, he warned that "God says, ‘I’m going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza Strip.’" "It’s my land and keep your hands off it,’" he said. (With Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Israel).
