Jewish settlement in Gaza feels the heat

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Bombs, clashes and siege conditions make Kfar Darom an unlikely draw for newlyweds Sarah and Nachshon Friedman who moved to the Jewish settlement in Gaza just before a wave of violence shuddered through the region.

Two adults from the isolated 40-family settlement died this week in a bomb attack on a school bus. At least 258 people, most of them Arabs, have been killed in two months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Friedman, 21, originally from Florida in the United States and the latest Kfar Darom arrival, said she had no regrets about moving three months ago to the Mediterranean coastal sliver that has fast become a war zone.

"It has strengthened me and we are strengthening Israel," she said referring to the thousands of Jews who live in settlements scattered among more than a million Palestinians on land in Gaza they say was promised to Jews in the Bible.

Palestinians regard settlements where 200,000 Jews make their homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as illegally rooted on land they demand for a future state and want them disbanded.

Some Israelis also favor disbanding the 16 Gaza communities, claiming they are too costly and dangerous to maintain.

Defending the Jewish presence in the area, Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh told reporters this week that 90 percent of the Israeli population support settlements in Gaza.

"Even in the far left of the Israeli political arena, even those staunchest opponents of the settlements would not accept that settlements would be dismantled under pressure of terrorism," he said.

An Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in 1994 gave the Palestine Liberation Organization control over most of the coastal area. Israel continues to have jurisdiction of the Jewish settlements concentrated in two main enclaves.

Kfar Darom was established in 1946 but evacuated during Israel's War of Independence in 1948. It was re-established as an outpost in 1970 and as a permanent Jewish settlement 20 years later.

One of three settlements isolated from the main Gush Katif bloc together with Netzarim and Morag, Kfar Darom poses a special security problem for Israel which has set up complicated traffic arrangements and an army presence to defend it.

Most of Kfar Darom's members are involved in religious study or agriculture.

A museum and visitors center across the road from the main settlement focuses on growing food in accordance with Jewish practice while down the road, a lettuce factory packages and markets bug-free kosher lettuces.

Precariously remote, Kfar Darom and the soldiers who guard it all year round have been favorite targets for Palestinian militants.

Five members of the settlement have been killed since it was refounded, including Kfar Darom's rabbi, Doron Shorshan, who was shot dead by Palestinian gunfire in 1993 while on his way to the greenhouses that rise from the Gaza sand dunes.

In 1995, eight Israeli soldiers and a civilian were killed when a suicide car-bomb near Kfar Darom collided with a bus. Two years ago schoolchildren narrowly escaped injury when a car bomb exploded near their bus, killing a soldier escort.

The settlement's proximity to the Deir al-Balah Palestinian refugee camp, which accuses settlers of provocative expansion and environmental pollution, is another spark that has lit the fuse of the Gaza powder keg in the past.

Earlier this year a dispute erupted after Palestinians tried to use a bulldozer to redirect sewage pouring from Kfar Darom on to Palestinian agricultural land.

Settlers holed up in their homes and forced to travel by night in convoys or with an army escort have demanded increased protection from the army but say there are determined to stay their ground as the bombs and bullets fly.

"We are a family here," Sarah Friedman said. "And like any family we are supporting each other and trying to deal with our day-to-day lifestyle."

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