TEL AVIV - Yesterday it was locks, today it’s bulldozers.
Anti-pullout activists vandalized and badly damaged several IDF bulldozers parked in the southern Negev desert, near the Gaza Strip.
The bulldozers were to be used to prepare a “tent city” for security forces slated to take part in the upcoming Gaza Strip pullout.
Meanwhile, right-wing activists also damaged equipment belonging to a contractor hired to expand a neighborhood earmarked for would-be-evacuees.
The army equipment was vandalized by a group of approximately 15 activists. Security officials estimate the vandals are not Gush Katif residents. The activists arrived at the parking lot and threatened to hurt the lone Bedouin guard at the site if he tried to stop them.
Subsequently, the activists inserted sugar and sand into the bulldozer’s gas tanks and spray-painted anti-disengagement slogans such as “A Jew doesn’t expel a Jew” and “We’re not scared of you” on the equipment.
‘Sharon is a traitor’
The activists eventually left the area but the frightened guard did not report the incident to police. When the bulldozer operators arrived Monday morning they were surprised to find them damaged and called the police.
An investigation into the matter has been launched, but no arrests have been made at this point, a police official said.
Meanwhile, vandals damaged tractors belonging to a contractor performing expansion work at a neighborhood near Kibbutz Zikim slated to absorb would-be evacuees.
The vandals also spray-painted anti-pullout slogans on the equipment, including “Sharon is a traitor” and “Gush Katif forever”. Police are looking into that incident, too.
