Palestinians savour end of Israeli presence

MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians swept into Gaza's abandoned Jewish settlements yesterday to savour the sweetness of the day when 38…

MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians swept into Gaza's abandoned Jewish settlements yesterday to savour the sweetness of the day when 38 years of Israeli civilian and military presence inside the coastal enclave came to an end.

Most were merely curious to peek behind the security fences and concrete military towers which had protected their unwelcome neighbours, but some also came to scavenge amid the debris of the former luxury villa homes which the evacuated residents had already picked clean of valuables.

Initial outbursts of celebratory gunfire by Palestinian militants and security forces alike gave way to a day of family celebration, with hundreds revelling in the simple pleasure of breezing past dismantled Israeli checkpoints and playing in the waves on beaches which hours earlier were exclusively reserved for settlers. Public buildings, water towers and synagogues were draped with flags of the ruling Fatah movement and Gaza's many different militant groups.

Islamic Jihad militants in black balaclavas cruised along the beach-front road in open-top jeeps, keen to declare the Israeli pull-out a victory for their resistance.

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At Gaza's southern border with Egypt, Egyptian troops who have assumed control of the frontier from Israel allowed people to stream across for impromptu family reunifications, but insisted this was a once-off concession.

Egyptian officials did not comment on local reports that border guards had shot dead a Palestinian man at the border yesterday.

In the town of Dir-al-Balah, the Bashir family was yesterday adjusting to life without the Israeli troops who have occupied the upper floors of their cinderblock home almost constantly for the past five years.

The soldiers, who had turned the building into a military outpost to protect the adjacent Kfar Darom settlement, left abruptly yesterday morning as part of the final pull-out of all remaining troops from the strip.

"They just said bye and stole the computer webcam," said Sa'ad Bashir (40), explaining that for the past month her family had been forced by the soldiers to sleep and live in one downstairs room, which they had even labelled "The Jail".

"It's like a rebirth for the whole family," she added.

Further south, in the synagogue of the former Neveh Dekalim settlement which hundreds of mostly teenage right-wing religious Zionist protesters were carried out of less than a month ago by Israeli troops, people milled around yesterday morning while Palestinian troops guarded against vandals.

"This is like a field day for all Palestinians," said Ibrahim Abu Subayah, a 21-year-old English student from nearby Khan Younis who had formerly worked in the settlements as a farm labourer.

"Of course this is our dream and we are very happy today to see our land which the Jews robbed from us.

"They came from different cultures and robbed our land and praise God because we got it back so I can't express my deep and warm feelings about this day."

Neveh Dekalim's former synagogue was one of 26 which the departing Israelis refused at the last minute to demolish themselves.

While Palestinians attempted to set fire to several other synagogues during the day, the Palestinian Authority later said it planned to bulldoze them all.