Escorted by a slight but heavily-armed Jewish settler, a dozen Palestinian workers jump off the back of an open-backed trailer following a hard day's work building the latest new homes at the Morag settlement deep in the southern Gaza Strip.
Three new houses are being built in this settlement of some 200 people which lies at the southernmost tip of the Gush Katif settlement bloc. Simple, one-storey affairs, these half-built grey cement shells look strangely like holiday chalets, each built on an expanse of sand which will soon be transformed into a perfectly manicured lawn.
Little more than a year before their scheduled departure under the terms of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, there is absolutely no sign of the 8,200 Jewish settlers of Gaza packing their bags.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Three new houses in Morag may not constitute a major development, but it is just one of many indications that Gaza's settlers are determined to put down even deeper roots in this 40-kilometre (25-mile) strip of territory abutting the Mediterranean.
Sharon's plan instead appears to have given an increasing number of Jewish families the incentive to pack their bags and move into Gush Katif.
Recent government figures show that between February and the end of June, the settler population of the Gaza Strip grew by 3.8 percent.
"By now, that number is probably higher as many more families moved to Gush Katif over the summer," Dror Vanunu, director of the Katif regional development fund told AFP, estimating the newcomers to number "at least 60 families".
In Ganei Or settlement, for example, the 50 or so families living there have just seen their number rise by half again after 26 new families arrived, many of them young parents with at least one child.
"The majority of communities don't have the ability to absorb these newcomers so we have to build," said Vanunu. "And as fast as we build, we get new families."
Funding for the new development has proved to be slightly problematic, however, Vanunu said, pointing out the government had stopped granting mortgages to Gush Katif residents some 10 days ago.
"It's a new thing but there are wealthy people in this country and abroad, so if the government won't help us, we will find private people to give us loans."
Haim Gross, head of security at the Morag settlement admits the freeze on funds has affected building work but doesn't appear overly worried.
"Normally the state helps out with the cost of building these houses, but at the moment it is not helping," he said.
"But this has happened dozens of times before, and within a month or two, things will be back to normal."
Anita Tucker, a 58-year-old celery farmer, is also hard pressed to take Sharon's plans seriously. "Sharon has been talking about this for quite a few months but not one government adviser has come down, so we don't take it very seriously," said Tucker, who was among the first people to move to Gaza in 1976 when Netzer Hazani settlement was set up.
Until now, the only activity conducted by the settlers of Gush Katif has been going into Israel armed with highly-polished rhetoric and boxes of locally-grown fruit and vegetables in a bid to recruit supporters.
"We can't change the government, so the best way to fight is by campaigning," she said. "Eventually, the people running the government are going to have to be re-elected, and these are the people who will decide." As for Gross, nothing short of death would provide him with an incentive to leave.
"I wouldn't leave for anything. A bullet in the head, maybe?" he shrugs.
"Money is absolutely not the point. No money can buy your ideology."