Israeli security forces blocked thousands of rightist protesters on Monday from heading toward Gaza's Jewish settlements for a march aimed at impeding Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territory next month. Israeli officials, citing fears of disturbances, deployed 20,000 police and soldiers to try to prevent hundreds of buses carrying opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan from reaching staging areas in southern Israel.
The move stoked right-wing anger against Sharon, who has billed the withdrawal from occupied Gaza as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.
It came amid efforts to defuse tensions between Israel and the Palestinians after the worst wave of violence since a cease-fire took effect in February.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian near a closed roadblock in the Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses and medics said. Israeli military sources said troops fired warning shots after several vehicles broke through the checkpoint.
Bloodshed has threatened to disrupt Sharon's plan to remove all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank starting in mid-August, Israel's first withdrawal from occupied land the Palestinians want for a state.
Looking for a showdown with Sharon, settler leaders had vowed to defy an official ban on their protest, which they had expected to attract more than 100,000 people.
Settlers said police held up some buses and that some protesters used cars to circumvent police restrictions. It was not clear if any buses were turned around.
Settlers and their supporters have vented anger in the past by blocking highways and planting fake bombs in public places.
Polls show most Israelis support Sharon's plan, which international mediators see as a possible springboard to renewed peace talks. Some 8,500 Jews live cloistered from 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Palestinians fear the plan will give them tiny, impoverished Gaza, while Israel strengthens its hold on much bigger West Bank settlements that house most of the 240,000 settlers.
Militants in the Gaza Strip kept up the rocket and mortar fire on Israeli targets on Monday despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's vow to do his utmost to prevent further attacks.
Egyptian mediators met with militants in Gaza to keep the cease-fire from collapsing entirely. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has scheduled a trip to the region this week.
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