Bassi, the planning official, said during a recent briefing that his agency was working with a variety of Israeli government ministries, including education, welfare, employment and social security, to prepare for "the day after" evacuation.
But Israeli authorities also are concerned about the days leading up to the pullout. During the Yamit withdrawal, Israeli soldiers faced off against hundreds of demonstrators, many of them pro-settler activists who flocked from the West Bank. Protesters locked themselves inside homes and clambered onto rooftops.
The noisy standoff lasted three weeks but did not turn violent. In the end, the demonstrators gave up and left Yamit.
Israeli officials hope to head off resistance this time by getting residents out early. The withdrawal is to be completed by August, giving parents time to enroll their children in new schools elsewhere. To discourage protesters from pouring in, authorities plan to close off the settlements by declaring them military zones.
It remains to be seen whether the government can persuade settlers to leave without a fight. Once the Israeli parliament passes a compensation bill, officials hope to begin writing checks representing partial payments by the end of this month.
As of last month, fewer than a third of the settlers had contacted Bassi's disengagement authority. Many people are reluctant to make it known they are preparing to leave while settler activists wage an intensive public campaign to stave off the withdrawal, Bassi said.
He recounted that a resident of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip recently came to his office, confessing fear that a neighbor would find out. Bassi said he did not tell the man that the neighbor had visited the previous day.
To provide discreet guidance, the government has launched a website for the settlers with a feature for calculating compensation based on a family's size, length of time in the home and other factors. Farms are eligible for additional money. Loans also are available.
The proposed compensation may not please many residents: A couple with five children, living in the same house for 10 years, would receive less than $100,000 for an 1,800-square-foot home.
Some former Yamit residents are advising settlers to move to a new community as a group to ease the pain of leaving. Israel is pushing two sparsely populated areas for resettlement: the southern Negev region and the northern Galilee.
Lawyer Sarita Maoz was 14 when her family was forced to vacate its home in Yamit. Female soldiers put her toys in boxes, Maoz recalled, and she saw her mother cry for the first time.
Maoz said she did not know where she and her family would go if they had to leave Elei Sinai. Three years ago, the family withdrew to Australia for nine months after Maoz and her husband were wounded when Palestinian gunmen opened fire inside the settlement. Maoz said they might retreat to Australia again if they have to abandon their home in Elei Sinai, with its bougainvillea accents and Mediterranean view.
The couple are making sure their three children -- ages 5 through 9 -- are braced for the worst but not in a panic, she said.
"We are trying to tell them that this is not the end of the world," Maoz said.
"I do not want them to remember a big tragedy that was the end of their life."
