The implementation of the disengagement plan has begun: At midnight the Israel Defense Forces closed the Kissufim roadblock at the entrance to the Gaza Strip for the last time, and this morning some 600 teams of officers from the army and police will distribute evacuation orders instructing settlers to leave their homes by Wednesday. If the settlers don't leave on their own, they will be forcibly evacuated.

Soldiers placed a red sign on the Kissufim roadblock last night that read: "Stop. By law, it is illegal to enter the Gaza Strip or stay in it." The IDF made an effort to infuse the Kissufim closing with historic significance, placing flags nearby and inviting dozens of reporting teams from around the world to cover the closure of the Strip.

The IDF also closed the other roadblocks on the Israel-Gaza border - the Karni crossing in the north and the Sufa crossing in the south. In addition, the northern West Bank area encompassing the four settlements slated for evacuation was declared a closed military zone.

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IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said yesterday he expects about half the settlers to leave their homes on their own in the next two days.

The IDF and police were still unable to say yesterday in what order they will evacuate the Gaza Strip settlements come Wednesday, but security forces estimate that if half the Gaza settlers are evacuated by Thursday, the pullout can be completed within about 10 days. Security forces are due to meet Thursday to discuss when they think the disengagement will be fully implemented.

The biggest challenge the security forces are expected to face comes from the estimated 5,000 pullout opponents, mostly youths, who have illegally entered Gaza.

In the last few days, senior officers have been holding secret negotiations with residents of several settlements - including those in which there is a high concentration of extremists - in an attempt to reach an agreement on their willing evacuation. In addition, there are about 10 settlements whose residents have already left or have reached agreements with security forces regarding the evacuation.

Three settlements in the northern Gaza Strip - Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit - have become almost completely deserted in the last few days. Only a handful of families remain in Elei Sinai, and most of the people now in Nisanit are among those who infiltrated the Strip.

The scarcity of settlers in northern Gaza has led the army to adjust its plans for the pullout. The plan being formulated, which will be finalized tomorrow, calls for two divisions to be set up in the Gaza settlement bloc of Gush Katif simultaneously. They will begin forcible evacuations on Wednesday and will attempt to evacuate as many settlements as possible by the end of the week, at which point the evacuation will be briefly suspended. The goal is to create an immediate impression that security forces have the upper hand and to weaken opposition in the settlements that have not yet been evacuated.

Security forces expect particularly harsh opposition from the Gaza settlement of Kfar Darom, as well as from some parts of Neveh Dekalim and Shirat Hayam. Some Gaza settlements plan to close the gates of their communities starting today in an attempt to keep out the officers distributing the evacuation orders. The IDF does not plan to enter these settlements by force, unless the security forces are being kept out by only a few isolated settlers.

When the settlers do let in the security forces, the officers will attempt to persuade them to leave quietly. The evacuation orders will be distributed today and tomorrow, in what the IDF is calling Operation Yad Achim ("Brotherly Hand"). The officers are due to knock on doors of houses that have already been evacuated in addition to those that have not been, in a bid to check whether pullout opponents from outside the Strip are staying in those houses.

The security establishment has prepared several alternatives for the order in which settlements will be evacuated, but the final decision will not be made until tomorrow night. The decision will be based on the events of the next two days: the government decision expected to be made today, in which the evacuation of four settlement blocs in Gaza and the northern West Bank are due to be approved, and the distribution of the evacuation orders.

It appears that police will be lenient with illegal residents in the settlements. Police recently decided that illegal residents who infiltrated the Strip and the northern West Bank won't be arrested, but will be kept away from the settlements for 15 days. The illegal residents will be arrested only if they act violently toward security forces.

As of this morning, the special magistrate's courts set up in Maasiyahu and Dekel prisons will be ready to hold remand hearings for detainees from the settlements. Both courts are prepared to hold consecutive hearings every day, in two shifts.

In the last four months, 2,050 right-wing activists were arrested for anti-pullout protests, half of whom are minors. Of those arrested, 459 were indicted; 97 are suspected of involvement in incitement and 71 are suspected of threatening public officials.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian officers yesterday finalized the deployment of forces on both sides in an attempt to keep Palestinians from launching attacks during the disengagement. The IDF commander in the Gaza Strip, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and IDF brigade commanders in Gaza represented the Israeli side, meeting at the Erez crossing with Jamal Abu Zayed, a Palestinian deputy minister, and Suleiman Hils, the commander of the Palestinian Authority security services in Gaza.

The Palestinians are set to deploy 7,500 police officers in areas near the Gaza settlements. The deployment began last night and will continue until this evening. The Palestinian security officials will stay 200 meters away from IDF troops.

IDF sources said the Palestinian deployment plan appears to be satisfactory, but that there is no guarantee the PA will manage to prevent terror attacks against the evacuating forces or the evacuees, as it has promised to do.

This evening the IDF will begin to deploy its "third ring" of evacuating forces - Givati and Golani brigades that will be deployed on the outskirts of Palestinian territory, especially in the Khan Yunis area and in the agricultural area bordering Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun in the northern Strip.