Night withdrawal from Gaza ends 38-year occupation

[Batgirl]

By Said Ghazali in Gaza City and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
(Filed: 12/09/2005)

Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip was due to end last night with its soldiers withdrawing under cover of darkness from settlements built and defended at the cost of much bloodshed.


Israeli troops in Gaza fold away the national flag

The pull-out sets the stage for Palestinian euphoria today when thousands of Gazans try to reach land which they claim as their own but has been inaccessible for decades.

An occupation that cost hundreds of mainly Palestinian lives was declared over when the Israeli cabinet formally voted yesterday to halt military rule that began in the 1967 war.

''The cabinet has unanimously approved the formal cancellation of the military government in Gaza,'' said the office of the prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

The move by Israel, giving up land it claimed as historically Jewish, shows compromise is possible on one of the world's bloodiest and most intractable problems.

But hopes that it would lead to an improvement in relations were dashed as a joint commemoration ceremony was cancelled because of anger at conditions imposed by Israel.

Palestinians were livid that Israel unilaterally sealed Gaza's southern border with Egypt, leading a senior Palestinian to say that Israel's control over Gaza would not really end with the withdrawal.

There was also Palestinian anger at a last-minute change by Mr Sharon on the issue of Gaza's 26 synagogues.


Mr Sharon had originally supported their demolition but, to woo important the Right-wing rabbis he will need in forthcoming elections, he changed his mind and led a cabinet vote not to destroy them.

The Palestinian Authority now faces the tricky responsibility of preserving the buildings, seen by many Gazans as symbols of a brutal, military occupation.

Yesterday an Israeli tank opened fire on a Palestinian crowd as it surged towards an army post hours before it was to be abandoned. A 12-year-old boy was reported wounded.

The cabinet made its decision to end military rule three weeks after Israel removed the 7,500 Jewish settlers living in 21 Gaza settlements set up since the early 1970s.

The army has been demolishing almost all the buildings inside the settlements under the terms of an agreement worked out with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority, aware of the needs of the 1.4 million people crowded inside Gaza City and refugee camps, agreed to the demolition.

The authority needs to provide high-density housing, not the single-storey homes common to Jewish settlements.

The demolition had threatened to delay the withdrawal after the Israeli planners said it would take up to 80,000 lorry-loads to shift the rubble.

After negotiations a deal was struck to demolish the buildings, making sure all hazardous material had been removed, and pay the Palestinians to dispose of the rubble. For the past two weeks the air above the Gaza settlements has been thick with dust as a series of huge explosions has levelled almost every Jewish building.

Jewish religious authorities also allowed the exhumation of bodies from Gaza's only Jewish cemetery.

They were moved to a new one inside Israel.

An Israeli army spokesman said 179 members of the Israeli security forces had been killed defending the Gaza settlements since 1967. Scores of Israeli civilians also died.

Many more Palestinians died, especially in the recent intifada, when Israel used brutal military tactics against militants, turning Gaza's refugee camps into war zones.

While Israel sought to glean diplomatic capital from the withdrawal, the Palestinians accused Israel of bad faith over the issue of the southern border and the synagogues.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Israel deliberately wanted to put the Palestinians in an awkward position by foisting responsibility for the preservation of the Jewish religious buildings on them.

''Isn't the Israeli government, in such a decision, trying to put us in a corner?" he said.

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't?'

While Israel has said the Palestinians must now prove they can run their own affairs inside Gaza, the Palestinians will be subject to important restrictions on their sovereignty.

Israel has said it will not allow the airport inside Gaza to operate.

It has also imposed restrictions on ships coming and going into the area.

Gaza's border with Egypt has been ordered by Israel to remain closed for at least six months while final negotiations continue over access.

Telegraph