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Netzarim synagogue destroyed (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners September 12, 2005 |
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| Neve Dekalim synagogue destroyed (AP) |
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Palestinians flooded into empty Jewish settlements Monday and climbed ropes and clambered over walls into Egypt to join a chaotic celebration of the end of 38 years of Israeli military rule over the Gaza Strip.
Plans by Palestinian police to bar crowds from the settlements quickly disintegrated. Militant groups hoisted flags, fired wildly into the air and set abandoned synagogues ablaze. Further marring the day, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Palestinian along the Gaza-Egypt border, and five Palestinians drowned off the Gaza coast, hospital officials said.
The unrest illustrated the weakness of Palestinian security forces and underscored concerns about their ability to control growing chaos in Gaza. The Israeli pullout is widely seen as a test for Palestinian aspirations of statehood.
Among those crossing the Egyptian border were purported members of the radical Islamic group, Hamas, who waved the group's green flag on Egyptian territory, raising immediate concern over Egypt's ability to meet Israeli demands to prevent militants from crossing the border. It was unclear whether weapons were imported at the time.
Egyptian security officials said they allowed the crossings to take place as a "humanitarian" gesture to families who had been separated for years. The officials also suggested the free, unchecked crossings would be short-lived as Egypt deploys 750 heavily armed troops to secure its border with Gaza.
Before nightfall, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas arrived at the crossing and raised a symbolic Palestinian flag.
Israeli soldiers long guarded the high walls splitting Rafah against cross-border infiltrators smuggling weapons and other contraband from Egypt into the volatile Palestinian territory.
Within hours of the Israeli withdrawal, hooded Palestinian militants toting guns stood atop the Palestinian wall as grinning Gazans climbed over using ropes to meet relatives long stranded on the Egyptian side. Egyptian security forces stood by as hundreds of Egyptians and Palestinians helped people climb over and join the spontaneous celebrations held under a scorching sun.
At one stage, a group of people strutted and chanted around a large Hamas flag on the Egyptian side. But the dance came to a brief, sudden halt after a celebratory burst of gunfire on the Palestinian side.
The last column of Israeli tanks rumbled out of Gaza just before sunrise. Troops locked a metal gate and hoisted their flag on the Israeli side of the border.
"The mission has been completed, and an era has ended," said Israel's Gaza commander, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the last soldier to leave the strip.
As soldiers poured out of Gaza throughout the night, jubilant Palestinians rushed into the abandoned settlements, turning the night sky orange as fires blazed. Women shrieked in joy, teens set off fireworks and crowds chanted "God is great."
Abbas told his people that there is still a "long road" to statehood, but said the day was one for joy.
"Today our people have the right to celebrate their freedom, their dignity. This place was a taboo for us for the past 38 years and now we are standing here," Abbas said during a tour of the Elei Sinai settlement in northern Gaza.
By midday, the situation had calmed as feelings of newfound freedom began to sink in. Many people toured the empty settlements. Roads were clogged with motorists headed to the beach, largely off limits to Palestinians during Israeli rule, while other people simply paused to take in the new reality.
"Since last night, I have been in the street, for no reason, just to breathe the air of freedom," said Samir Khader, a farmer in northern Gaza. "I don't know what the future will bring, but at least, I can come in and out of my house at any time."
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the group "will support any step that will produce something for our people" but made clear that it has no plans to disarm as long as Israel controls the West Bank and Jerusalem.
"We should protect the resistance option and the resistance weapons," he said.
Palestinian authorities had promised an orderly transition after the pullout, but the calls for calm were ignored. Police stood by helplessly early Monday as gunmen raised flags of militant groups in the abandoned settlements and crowds smashed what was left in the ruins or walked off with doors, window frames, toilets and scrap metals.
After rushing into the settlements, Palestinians set fire to empty synagogues in the Morag, Kfar Darom and Netzarim settlements, as well as a Jewish seminary in Neve Dekalim. Later, a Palestinian bulldozer began knocking down the walls of the Netzarim synagogue.
"They (Israelis) destroyed our homes and our mosques. Today it is our turn to destroy theirs," said a man in Neve Dekalim who gave his name only as Abu Ahmed.
Mofaz: "Zero tolerance" -- well, maybe not zero
The IDF will react to any Palestinian terrorist activity with "zero tolerance," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday, after IDF troops withdrew from Gaza. Mofaz said the army would not allow Palestinians to fire rockets at Israeli towns.
As the troops were leaving, Palestinians fired a Kassam rocket at the Negev town of Sderot. The rocket caused no damage nor injuries, but landed only 1000 feet from the "tent city" housing scores of Jewish expellees.
Yaniv Levi, former secretary of the northern Gaza community of Alei Sinai, said that he expected the State of Israel to respond by demolishing the area from which the rockets were fired. ?The Palestinians need to know that they will bring harm to their own property, infrastructure and homes -- not just a house here and a house there -- to utterly demolish. The moment the IDF does this, it will stop. They will stop firing the rockets.?
The formerly quiet Negev community of Netiv HaAsarah found itself a border town Monday morning, with dozens of Palestinians approaching the town and chanting slogans. The town remains vulnerable to rocket and rifle fire. Gil Nir, the chairman of the town?s security committee told Arutz Sheva that promises that residents would be protected did not materialize. He said that reinforcement of the roofs of public buildings and kindergartens has not been carried out and that a wall meant to protect them from gunfire from Gaza has not been completed. "They were in such a hurry to get the soldiers out that they ended up abandoning us civilians," he said.
In the afternoon, a second rocket apparently hit Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, north of Gaza. No injuries were reported.
In response, Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said, "He who thought and deluded himself that the Disengagement would lead to a reduction in terror has been proven wrong."
Yishai demanded that the Knesset appoint a special emergency teams to deal with the protection of the city of Ashkelon from Kassam rocket fire: "We've barely closed Gush Katif's gates and the rockets are already landing in Yad Mordechai," just a few miles from the coastal city.
Swimming in troubled waters
Israel removed some 8,500 Gaza settlers from their homes in 21 settlements last month, and razed homes and most buildings in the communities. However, the Israeli Cabinet decided at the last minute Sunday to leave 19 synagogue buildings intact, drawing criticism from the United States that the decision put the Palestinians in an awkward position.
Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, called the burning of the synagogues "a barbaric act."
At mid-afternoon, signs of chaos remained. Hundreds of cars, motorcycles and donkey carts -- piled with scrap metal and other items looted from the settlements -- clogged Gaza's main roads. Palestinian militants posed to take pictures at a former Israeli checkpoint, and policemen unsuccessfully tried to clear away traffic.
Near the Rafiah Yam settlement near Rafah, dozens of giddy teenage boys, including 15-year-old Mahmoud Barbakh, went to the beach for what they said was the first time ever. They rolled up their jeans and jumped into the water fully clothed. One used a refrigerator door as a makeshift surfboard.
"It's the sweetest thing in the whole world," said Barbakh.
At least five Palestinians drowned on the Gaza coast during the day.
The AP contributed to this report.
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