GAZA: PALESTINIANS HOPE ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE GAZA STRIP WILL BETTER THEIR LIVES
Record ID:
400679
GAZA: PALESTINIANS HOPE ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE GAZA STRIP WILL BETTER THEIR LIVES
- Title: GAZA: PALESTINIANS HOPE ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE GAZA STRIP WILL BETTER THEIR LIVES
- Date: 9th August 2005
- Summary: (BN12) ABU-HOLY CHECKPOINT CONNECTING GAZA CITY TO KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA STRIP (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PALESTINIANS WALKING TOWARDS CHECKPOINT CONNECTING GAZA CITY TO KHAN YOUNIS; MEN WALKING TOWARDS CHECKPOINT ( 0.09 2. MV YOUNG MAN DRINKING WATER FROM A TANK; MAN WASHING HIS FACE; SLV FAMILY CARRYING LUGGAGE AND WALKING TOWARDS CHECKPOINT ( 0.25
- Embargoed: 24th August 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KHAN YOUNIS, GUSH KATIF, BEIT LAHIYA,NEVE DEKALIM AND VARIOUS LOCATIONS, GAZA STRIP
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA98EHV86MD53BQGFM8OHPF5KS6
- Story Text: Palestinians hope Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza
strip will better their lives.
Mohammed Qasem, a Palestinian truck driver knows
that when he wants to deliver goods from Khan Younis to
Gaza City, his journey of just a few kilometres will take
him all day because he has to pass through Abu Holy
checkpoint.
As they queuing for hours under the hot sun at Abu Holy
checkpoint, Qasem and thousands of other Palestinians hope
that Israel's evacuation of more than 8,000 settlers and
the removal of checkpoints and roadblocks will bring relief
for 1.3 million people living in the cramped Gaza Strip.
"Once the settlements are gone, this road should be open
24 hours a day, whenever we feel like passing," said Qasem
as he waited at the checkpoint, which cuts off Gaza City
from Khan Younis in the southern part of Gaza.
Gaza is an arid wedge of territory at the southeast end
of the Mediterranean Sea, about 45 km (25 miles) long and
10 km (six miles) wide. It borders Israel to the north and
east, and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the south. Israel
occupied the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and in
the following decades built 21 settlements there. Scattered
along the Gaza Strip, the settlements - and Israeli army
checkpoints surrounding them - effectively split the land -
the world's most densely populated area.
These harsh conditions were made worse since the
beginning of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Palestinian militants have staged thousands of shooting,
bombing, rocket and mortar attacks on soldiers and settlers
in Gaza. In response, Israel's army carried out many raids
and air strikes against militants that also killed civilian
bystanders in crowded urban areas. Thousands of Gazans were
made homeless or lost livelihoods by Israeli demolitions of
housing and flattening of farmland. Palestinian statistics
show unemployment in the territory of 1.3 million has risen
to 40 percent from 10 percent before violence started in
2000.
Those queueing to go through the checkpoints can never
be sure if and for how long they will be open. Checkpoints
such as 'Abu Holy' are manned by Palestinian police who
receive orders from the Israeli military as to how many
vehilces can cross. Sometimes the checkpoints are closed
for months.
But most checkpoints are still manned by Israeli troops
- mainly around the settlements. In the past, Israeli
vehicles either arriving or leaving the settlemens were
escorted by heavy military presence, while the road is
blocked to Palestinian cars. Today, special bridges connect
some of the settlements to Israel, allowing traffic for
Israeli cars only.
The city of Khan Younis borders the Gush Katif
settlement bloc. Almost 150,000 Palestinians live in Khan
Younis city and the adjacent refugee camp. Khan Younis
mayor, Osama Farrah, says that the evacuation of the
settlers and removal of the checkpoints will allow free
movement of Palestinian students, workers and trade,
boosting the city's crumbling economy.
"We are talking about thousands of students who daily move through
this checkpoint to continue their education in
Gaza, we are talking about thousands of our people who work
in the south of the Gaza Strip who move through this
checkpoint and also we are talking about the trade work
between the north and the south of the Gaza Strip," says
Farrah.
Foad Hilaleh, a Palestinian man who lost a leg during
the uprising, lives in the closest house to the Gush Katif
settlement bloc. He says his dream is to see his children
swim in the Mediterranean Sea, from which they have been
cut off.
"I have children who have never seen the sea, they are
five years old and they do not know the sea. Everyday they
say 'we want to go to the sea' and I tell them that when
the Jews leave - they will open the roads," said Hilaleh.
Israel has said it will keep control of Gaza's air and
sea space after the pullout for security reasons, although
troops are expected to leave the boundary with Egypt.
Three settlements lie in the northern part of the Gaza
strip. Dugit, Nissanit and Elei Sinai border large
Palestinian towns such as Beit Lahiya, and are expected to
be the first settlements to be evacuated next week.
Most of Nissanit's residents are expected to leave
quietly during the withdrawal. Many moved there for
economic reasons - cheaper housing - than for any
religious desire to claim what some Jews view as a biblical
birthright.
Elei Sinai is the settlement created after the
evacuation of Yamit, a settlement built in the Egyptian
Sinai desert and handed back to Egypt as part of a peace
treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in Camp David in
1979. It is home to the largest artisan well and lies on
the most fertile land in the Gaza Strip.
Abu Moussa, a resident of Beit Lahiya, lives in a small
house with his children and and grandchildren.
Once a wealthy farmer, Abu Moussa has not brought in any
income since the Israeli army razed his farmed land and
fenced off a sizeable portion to protect the near-by
settlement of Dugit.
"The land, we used to irrigate it, we are farmers, we
had groves and lemons, oranges and everything, they razed
everything, the greens, the irrigation pipes and
everything. They even razed the wells," Abu Moussa says.
He now hopes that the pullout will enable him to regain
his land, but says it is too early to say what the future
will bring.
"We can not say anything about the future until we see
them withdrawing. They might not withdraw and then this
would all be words in vain. You can not say that it is true
until it happens. When it happens, we will talk".
The withdrawal in Gaza involves leaving about
one-fifth of Gaza's 378 square kilometres of land, or
about 75 square kilometres. Palestinians want Gaza and the
West Bank for a future state with a capital in Arab East
Jerusalem, all areas captured by Israel in the 1967
Middle East war. But Israel vows never to yield its largest
West Bank settlements or redivide Jerusalem.
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