Israeli troops pushed through burning barricades and dragged screaming protesters from a settlement synagogue on Friday in an assault on one of the last pockets of resistance to evacuation from the Gaza Strip.

Diehard Jewish settlers took to rooftops in the tiny Gadid enclave shouting "Nazis" as security forces swept in, hours after clearing Gaza's main anti-pullout strongholds to break the back of opposition to ending 38 years of occupation.

With the latest poll confirming solid support among the Israeli public for the first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a state, troops rushed to wrap up their toughest tasks before the start of the Jewish Sabbath at sunset.

Marching past flaming cars, unarmed riot troops surrounded Gadid's synagogue and forced their way in as 90 protesters, mostly radical youths who had locked themselves inside, lay on the floor. Some prayed. Others cried or shouted abuse.

In what has become a familiar scene this week, police wrestled them out one by one and carried them to waiting buses - as they had in raids on two other enclaves on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a group of detained opponents to the withdrawal escaped from a bus on Friday and fled into a Palestinian area, Israeli officials said.

Soldiers were pursuing the youths.

More than 80 percent of Gaza's 8,500 settlers have been evacuated under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan", and officials said they were far ahead of schedule.

With 17 of Gaza's 21 enclaves clear of settlers, troops plan to begin evacuating two small West Bank settlements on Tuesday in a 24-hour operation, a security source said. That would complete removal of all 9,000 settlers under Sharon's plan.

But Sanur and Homesh, built on territory where many religious Jews feel an even closer biblical bond than in Gaza, are seen as potential flashpoints because of an influx of rightist Israelis from the most radical West Bank settlements.

Evacuation forces were expected to begin massing over the weekend in the northern West Bank, where two other mostly secular enclaves have already emptied out voluntarily.

Many of Gadid's 350 residents had already left before troops moved in, but a few families and dozens of protesters defiantly remained. Columns of smoke rose from piles of burning tyres and debris as soldiers went door to door ordering people out.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had shown courage. On Friday, Australia and Pakistan welcomed Israeli pullout from the Gaza settlements.

(China Daily August 20, 2005)