The Disengagement Authority announced today that an agreement had been struck with 38 Jewish families from northern Gaza to leave their homes. The Gush Katif spokesman says the story is “recycled.”

The families, from Elei Sinai and Nissanit, reportedly agreed to move together to the agricultural community of Bat Adar, just six miles from their current homes. They were promised $30,000 and an eighth of an acre to build upon, including development, in exchange for the land they currently live upon. They signed the tentative deal with Yonatan Bassi, the head of the Disengagement Authority, though the deal is dependent on the passing of the Evacuation/Compensation Law in the Knesset.

"I don´t know where these numbers come from,” Sarita Maoz of Elei Sinai told Arutz-7 today, “the large majority here is not conducting any negotiations or anything.” She added that most of the members of Elei Sinai have in fact refused to even meet with members of the Disengagement Authority.

After months of persistant pressure on the part of the government, as well as a media presenting the expulsion as a done deal, Maoz says the number of families convinced to leave by the Disengagement Authority is unimpressive. “I believe that only 10 families here and another 10 from Nisanit have signed,” she said. “We´re the northernmost community in Gaza, just four kilometers from the large electric plant in Ashkelon. I believe that those families made a rushed decision, and though I wish them well, I believe that in the end we will succeed in remaining here."

Gush Katif spokesman Eran Sternberg told Arutz-7’s Shimon Cohen that the families being referred to are in fact the same exact ones that were brought to the media’s attention by the Disengagement Authority just a few months ago. “Yonatan Bassi is upset because it has been about a month without headlines so he decided to stage a media production with the same exact families that he met with almost two months ago at the ‘Yad Mordechai’ restaurant.”

Sternberg says the recycled story is meant to pressure residents to abandon their homes and to convince the public that the disengagement is even possible. “I am not surprised that Bassi boasts over every family he manages to get to leave,” he said. "The Prime Minister’s Office has already speculated that most of the Gush Katif residents would evacuate willingly, but the exception to the rule proves the rule – that the great majority of the residents remain strong and united, and are unimpressed by the Disengagement Authority´s attempt to bribe them with money," Sternberg said. (IsraelNationalNews © 02/02/05)