Thousands of Israeli rightists suspended a march on Gaza settlements yesterday after security forces blocked their path to prevent them from disrupting a planned pullout from the occupied territory.

Demonstrators who had been halted by police and soldiers as they surged out of Ofakim in southern Israel turned back towards the town just after dawn, and settler leaders said they would rest and decide towards evening what to do next.

Small bands of protesters had managed to slip past the massive cordon of security forces overnight, and police said they had arrested more than 200 people near roadblocks at Israel's border with the fenced-in Gaza Strip.

It was the latest attempt by settlers and their supporters to thwart Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all Jewish settlements in Gaza starting on August 17 in what he has called "disengagement" from the flashpoint coastal strip.

In Gaza, around 10,000 Palestinians danced and sang, some firing rifles in the air, in early celebrations yesterday of Israel's coming withdrawal.

The festivities in Gaza City's central square were sponsored by a special committee created by the Palestinian Authority to raise public awareness of the pullout and encourage Palestinians to mark it peacefully.

Egyptian security officers have been brought in to help train a new 5,000-man Palestinian force to safeguard vacated Jewish settlements and prevent feared looting and seizures of property by armed factions powerful in Gaza.

The street celebrations were the first in a popular campaign launched by the Authority to foster a peaceful transition in settlement areas and army bases to be vacated by Israel.

Green-red-and-black Palestinian flags fluttered as women and youth danced in circles and belted out nationalist songs.

Some revellers held assault rifles, posters of late iconic guerrilla leader and President Yasser Arafat, and banners saying, "Settlements were historically owned by our people and let us preserve them" and "Let's fly the flags over our land."

Palestinian officials have said ordinary people would be free to celebrate inside vacated Israeli settlements but not to seize property whatever pent-up anger and bitterness there may be after 38 years of occupation.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei stuck to longstanding Palestinian goals, saying the impending pullout would not be enough. "We reject a state with temporary borders ... Our march will stop only in Jerusalem," he told a cheerful crowd.

Making a plea to avoid violent chaos in abandoned settlements, and alluding to Palestinian hopes of advancing towards statehood via the pullout, Qurei told the crowd: "Be united and fight against those who will try to harm our image."

He added: "Send a message out to the whole world that we are happy for the withdrawal of the occupation..."

(China Daily August 5, 2005)