Palestinians sweep in as Israel abandons Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Jubilant Palestinians
charged into Gaza’s abandoned Jewish settlements, planting
flags on the rubble and firing in the air on Monday as Israeli
troops ended a 38-year presence.

“This is a day of happiness and joy that the Palestinian
people have not witnessed for a century,” President Mahmoud
Abbas told reporters in Gaza City.

Thousands of Palestinian security men waving victory signs
took over as Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles trundled out,
for the first time giving up settlements on land that
Palestinians want for a state.

Shortly after sunrise, Israeli soldiers closed the gates of
the main crossing to the abandoned settlements.

“The mission has been completed,” said Brigadier Aviv
Kochavi. “Israel’s presence of 38 years has come to an end.”

Attacking symbols of the hated Israeli occupation, youths
set ablaze several of the synagogues left behind in the 21
settlements evacuated last month under Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s plan to “disengage” from conflict.

The withdrawal is likely to win Sharon international
accolades when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on
Thursday. Washington hopes it will revive peacemaking.

But while Palestinians welcome the pullout, they fear
Sharon is trading Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, for
permanent hold on larger areas of the occupied West Bank where
245,000 Jewish settlers live isolated from 2.4 million Arabs.

Palestinians are also angry that Israel, citing security
reasons, will continue to control Gaza’s border crossings, air
space and waters and say the occupation is far from over.

Celebrating in the former settlements, some Palestinians
chanted “Allahu Akhbar” (God is greatest) and held up pictures
of dead militants. Some kissed the ground. Others scampered
down to pristine beaches they could not reach for years.

“Today is the happiest day in my life,” said Jawad Abu
Lafi, 50, after praying amid the rubble of one former
settlement.

Israeli troops cheered and hugged each other as they
crossed out of Gaza, scene of some of the worst violence since
an uprising blew up in 2000. Military flares and fireworks
launched by celebrating Palestinians lit up the desert strip.

STATEHOOD TEST

The poor territory is a volatile testing ground for
statehood.

President Abbas’s first task will be to enforce law and
order in the Gaza Strip and rein in powerful militant groups
which refuse to disarm. Israel has threatened massive
retaliation if attacks from Gaza continue.

“We will not tolerate their ineptitude, turn a blind eye to
their failures or ignore acts of terror. They will not be able
to shirk their responsibility,” said Halutz.

Militants were among the first to scramble into the
settlements, trying to plant their faction’s flags on the
highest ground. At Abbas’s behest, militants kept to a
seven-month-old ceasefire to smooth the Israeli pullout.

“Four years of our resistance have done more than 10 years
of negotiations,” said one masked militant from the Islamic
Hamas group inside a settlement.

Rightist Israeli opponents of the withdrawal had called the
evacuation of Gaza’s 8,500 settlers a capitulation to the
militants. Many settlers saw Gaza as a biblical birthright, but
most Israelis were happy to abandon it.

Like most twists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the
pullout was marred by dispute and recriminations.

Palestinians were unhappy at a last minute decision by
Israel’s cabinet not to level 19 settlement synagogues, unlike
settlers’ homes demolished in last month’s evacuation.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of trying to
saddle it with the blame if Jewish houses of worship were
wrecked. Abbas said that since all religious symbols had been
removed from the synagogues, they were no different to other
buildings.

“They will all be destroyed,” said his aide, Jibril Rajoub.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Netzarim, Diala
Saadeh in Nissanit, Dan Williams in Kissufim, Jonathan Saul in
Kerem Shalom, Corinne Heller in Jerusalem. Writing by Matthew
Tostevin in Jerusalem)