- Title: GAZA: PALESTINIANS CELEBRATE THE ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA
- Date: 12th September 2005
- Summary: (W1)KISSUFIM CROSSING, BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP (SEPTEMBER 12, 2005) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) 1. VARIOUS OF CONVOY OF ISRAELI ARMY VEHICLES LEAVING GAZA 0.15 2. SLV OF TANK CROSSING CHECKPOINT, SOLDIERS WAVING 0.30 3. MORE OF TANKS CROSSING CHECKPOINT, ENTERING ISRAEL 0.48 (W1)NEVE DEKALIM, GAZA STRIP (SEPTEMBER
- Embargoed: 27th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KISSUFIM CROSSING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP/ NEVE DEKALIM, NETZARIM AND GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA9F1BF7Q57A5BJZI0TP4XEPKLQ
- Story Text: Israel ends 38 years of occupation in Gaza.
Israeli forces pulled out of the Gaza Strip on
Monday (September 12) after 38 years of occupation and
joyful Palestinians charged into the ruins of former
settlements, planting flags and firing in the air.
Palestinian security forces waving victory signs took
over as Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles started
trundling out in a column after midnight, for the first
time giving up settlements on land that Palestinians want
for a state.
"This day is happiness and jolliness the Palestinian
people have missed for a century of time," President
++++(some text missing)++++
In Neve Dekalim, in Gush Katif, Palestinians, chanting
'God is greatest', danced and waved Palestinian flags. Some
kissed the ground. Others scampered down to pristine
Mediterranean beaches they could not reach for years.
Flares fired by Israeli troops and fireworks launched
by celebrating Palestinians lit up the desert strip that
has been scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the
uprising that erupted after peace talks failed in 2000.
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.
In Netzarim, in central Gaza, dozens of Palestinians
burnt down a synagogue, chopping its columns and
demolishing the walls.
While welcoming the pullout, the Palestinian Authority
fears 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.
Gaza and the West Bank were captured in the 1967 war.
The withdrawal is likely to win Sharon international
accolades when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly in
New York on Thursday. Washington hopes it will serve as a
catalyst for new peacemaking.
But Palestinians are angry that Israel will continue to
control Gaza's border crossings, air space and territorial
waters and say the occupation is far from over.
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.
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.
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
defaced by Palestinian crowds. Synagogues quickly became
targets for some celebrating youths, despite the efforts of
police to stop them.
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