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Leaving Gaza ends dream for one family

Soon to be evacuated and later demolished, the house of Shimon and Sara Snir now sits in shambles. The painting of a wizened rabbi rests on the salon floor amid a maze of Israeli army-issued boxes brimming with toys and puzzles. A power screwdriver whirs as bed frames are undone. Outside, a ditch has been dug around an olive tree that will be uprooted.

Thirteen years ago the couple followed faith and a dream to Gaza, which they believed to be part of the biblical birthright of the Jewish state. Now, like many of the 8,500 Jewish settlers bracing for Israel`s withdrawal from Gaza next week, their family of nine has reluctantly begun to gather up their belongings. The moving truck arrives Sunday.

On Monday they will get their eviction notices and Israel",s long-anticipated evacuation of 25 settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank - a landmark pullback from territory conquered in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians as part of a future state - will officially swing into motion. Jewish settlers who haven`t already left will then get a two-day grace period to depart. Teams of soldiers and policeman are poised to drag out stalwarts who defy the Aug. 17 deadline, a mission that many worry could spiral into violence and even bloodshed over the course of an evacuation that could last more than a month, according to the Israeli army.

"You can`t leave anything. If you don`t take it, the army will destroy it," says Shimon Snir, while supervising a Palestinian worker taking apart a gazebo. "There`s so much to pack we don`t even know where to start."