The youngest member of the delegation that received a group of journalists and photographers that was sent this week to cover the evacuation of the settlement of Kerem Atzmona in Gush Katif could have been no more than 6 years old. It was in the early morning hours of Wednesday, five hours before the arrival of the forces that were about to wipe the settlement off the map.

The child came down from the top of the isolated hill around which the settlement is built, riding a bicycle, along with three friends, one of whom looked like he had just turned 13. He was wearing tefillin (phylacteries) and a tallit (prayer shawl). They had come to warn the journalists not to enter the settlement, explaining that it was private property. "And what will happen if we come in and ask to speak with your parents?" asked one reporter. The children looked at one another, went off to the side for a brief consultation, and then the oldest member of the gang announced: "It would end very badly, there could even be bloodshed." At which his friends nodded their heads in agreement.

Much has been said about the part played by young people in infiltrating the settlements of the Gaza Strip and opposing the evacuation. The spotlights were barely directed at their young brothers, who have also played an important role in the national drama. It will shape their personality and their future, especially because of their young age.

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The children of the Yehezkel family, who were led from their homes to buses that waited to evacuate them, will not soon forget how their grandfather Eitan instructed them to walk out with their hands raised and with orange patches on their shirts. The eldest grandson will not be able to erase the sound of his own voice shouting: "This is how they expelled us from Germany; now we are being expelled from here." The infant child of the neighbors might remember how policemen and soldiers carried his father out of his home, as he desperately tried to grab on to the doorway, screaming like a wounded animal.

Provoking the adults
The children were the spearhead of the small settlement in southern Gush Katif, which looks out on the sea and is looked at from a kilometer away by snipers in Khan Yunis. The first caravan, placed here in 2000, was described as a day camp. Only a while later did families begin to move in about 20 at the height of the settlement's development and another 12 in the past few months.

Prior to the withdrawal, they were joined by dozens of people, including the Nahum family with its seven children, from Otniel, the West Bank settlement. The eldest child revealed the name of the family, but then remembered the adults' instructions not to give names to reporters. When one of the younger children was asked to say his name, his friend from Otniel offered this advice: "Tell them that your name is Bye Bye." The little boy accepted the advice.

As is their wont, the children tried to provoke the adults. They repeatedly came over to warn the journalists and to request, like their parents, not to photograph them. They hid from the camera lens under the tallit of the leader of the gang, and then peeked out at the photographers. But from mischievousness, rage and wickedness burst forth, as well. After the residents refused to allow the entry of an army truck with containers for them to pack up their belongings, and repeatedly forced it to reverse, one of the children shouted at the driver: "Run them over, run them over," as he pointed at the journalists. When the latter asked the children if they could ask their parents to enable a few reporters to enter the settlement and use the restroom, one boy, who looked to be about nine years old, replied: "Do it in the sand, like animals. You are animals.?

To which his young friend added: "You're garbage."

The hostility of Kerem Atzmona residents toward the media was greater than that the hostility they expressed toward the army and policy forces who came to evacuate them. And the children thoroughly understood the distinction. Perhaps they wanted to please the grown-ups and at least banish the evil representatives of the media, if not the army. "You are evil," they said over and over. When one reporter tried to explain that he was only doing his job, one of the children replied: "The Arabs are doing their jobs, too. To steal from us and to kill us." Another child consented to explain just why he was so angry at the press. "You'll only show that empty caravan over there," he said, pointing at a container at the edge of the settlement, "and everyone will see it on television and think we're evacuating. But we will not evacuate. Never," he said, and started to cry.

Afterwards, the children went back to playing their roles in their not-so-secret gang, for the wonderful summer adventure in the sand dunes outside their homes. One of them set fire to a cardboard box that was brought by the soldiers. The children skipped around it enthusiastically until the fire spread, at which point they grew alarmed and called their parents for help. Two- and 3-year-old toddlers were also enlisted in the effort to put out the fire and gleefully threw sand on the bonfire. After the flames were quashed, the adults told the children to go home. "Keep away from the press," one resident said with a megaphone.

A mother who came over to urge the children to go home was asked about their harsh statements and the education they receive. "When you become religious, come back to us. Until then, get out of here," she said. And in order to dispel any doubt, she reiterated the sentiment in the vernacular. "Ruhi," (Go, in Arabic), she told one reporter standing next to her.