Hardline settlers threw acid and dirt bombs at the soldiers. (Reuters)

GAZA, August 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The standoff between Israeli forces and radical Jewish settlers took a violent turn Friday, August 19, after acid and dirt bombs were hurled at the troops, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to express "rage" at the Jewish settlers.

Israeli troops began dragging settlers and their supporters from a Gaza synagogue, one of the last pockets of resistance to a pullout from the occupied coastal strip, Reuters reported Friday.

Police said about 90 opponents to the Israeli withdrawal were holed up inside the Gadid synagogue, the third such place of Jewish worship where settlers and their supporters had barricaded themselves. The other two were evacuated Thursday.

Police and soldiers surrounded the synagogue where up to several hundred radical opponents of the pullout from the Gaza Strip were closeted, before barging in to evict the protestors.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and police have started to evacuate residents in the synagogue," an army spokeswoman said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hundreds of Israeli police, border police and soldiers were deployed throughout the settlement on the third day of forcible evictions of Jews from the Palestinian territory after a 38-year occupation.

The army said that there were dozens of families still to be evacuated from Gadid and confirmed the presence of several hundred radical youth and protestors inside the settlement.

"A handful of houses have been evacuated. Some people are being carried out but on the whole the resistance is very mild," a spokesman said.

"There are roughly 30 families to be evacuated. In addition, a couple of hundred youth who are non-residents," he said.

The violent turn came after hardline settlers hurled acid and dirt bombs Thursday at Israeli security forces who were trying to evict them from a synagogue in the Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom.

Forces on the ground sprayed colored water cannon at dozens of rooftop protestors to help their colleagues climb up ladder to reach the summit.

Police in riot gear used wire cutters to cut through a mass of razor wire which had been spread across the roof while other forces were able to land on top of the building after being maneuvered into place by a crane.

The protestors were seen jamming metal poles into the shields of the forces and hurling buckets of colored liquid and dirt at the troops.

"Jews Don't Expel Jews," they shouted.

Some troops were seen leaving the synagogue in only their underwear and were seen washing themselves down with water after they were sprayed with liquid.

"We have several policemen who have been wounded by acid and we will apply the full force of the law," General Dan Harel, the commander of the Gaza pullout operation, told reporters.

A stream of people who had taken refuge inside the synagogue in one of the most defiant settler bastions was earlier carried out by unarmed soldiers and police wearing riot gear.

Sharon, meanwhile, voiced his rage at radical Jewish settlers who attacked police trying to eject them from a Gaza Strip synagogue.

"When I saw the young people who tried to attack the evacuators from the synagogue roof, my feeling of sadness was replaced by one of rage," Sharon told the Yedout Ahronot daily published Friday.

Sharon is to travel to the Gaza Strip settlements next week to meet soldiers who have taken part in the historic pullout operation, his office said, according to AFP.

"The prime minister plans to travel to the Gaza Strip next week. Final details related to security and timing have still to be resolved," a source in his office told AFP.

Sharon was once seen as the ultimate supporter of the settler movement but has turned into their arch enemy by ordering the evacuation from Gaza, the first time Israel has removed Jews from Palestinian land.

The prime minister said he had been appalled by the behavior of some of the radical settlers who assaulted police who raided a synagogue rooftop in the settlement of Kfar Darom.

"I saw this bunch of wild people attacking police, border police and soldiers and I said to myself that this was a criminal act, simply that. This is a bunch of wild people sent to Kfar Darom ... in an attempt to prevent physically the implementation of the government and Knesset decisions.

"This was completely opposite to the dignified departure of the permanent residents of Kfar Darom."

The premier promised unstinting efforts to help the settlers start new lives outside Gaza.

"I can promise them that this bulldozer (Sharon's nickname) will work hard on their behalf. There will be no limits in my commitment to rehabilitate the evacuees."