KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, 21 August 2004 — Khadija Salama grinned broadly as she sat on a mattress in the battered remains of a home she had not visited for four years. As Israel has begun evacuating Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have started venturing into areas that were battlegrounds between militants attacking the settlements and Israeli troops defending them. Anyone who set foot in what Palestinians called the “death zones” risked being shot.
Salama’s house lay between the biggest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, and the Khan Younis refugee camp, a stronghold of militants during an uprising since 2000. Neve Dekalim was evacuated on Friday and Israel now hopes to have all the Gaza settlers out by Tuesday. “I thank God for this,” said Salama, who abandoned her house near the start of the intifada because of the constant shooting. “When someone fired a single bullet at the settlement, the army used to respond from all directions,” she said yesterday.
Palestinians welcome Israel’s withdrawal, the first from settlements on land that they seek for a state, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for “disengaging” from conflict. Palestinians worry that Sharon’s aim is to strengthen Israel’s hold on much bigger West Bank settlements, but that has done little to dim celebrations in Gaza.
Around Khan Younis, army bulldozers cleared hundreds of homes near settlements, saying they were used by militants taking cover among civilians to launch attacks. Palestinians called such measures collective punishment. “It really looks like Hiroshima, but on a lesser scale of course,” said Palestinian security officer Marwan Awwad, gesturing toward the rubble and twisted metal of demolished houses.
Pictures of Palestinians killed are pasted on electricity poles. Their names are spray painted on walls next to political slogans like: “Resistance had defeated the occupation”. Palestinian militants claim the withdrawal as a victory for the uprising. The view is shared by rightist opponents in Israel, who say it sets a dangerous precedent. Most Israelis back the pullout as a way to reduce friction.
Awwad and his men took up positions near Jewish settlements to help ensure militants keep respecting a six-month-old truce and that Israel can complete its withdrawal quietly. It could take weeks before Israel hands over the settlements and troops will guard them until then, but much of the tension seemed to have gone on Saturday.
In a sign of normalcy, boys played bare-foot on the sand dunes outside Khan Younis. Curious residents approached army watchtowers to try to get a better look at the evacuated settlements. “We hope that once all of settlers and soldiers are gone this chapter of blood and destruction will be over,” said Salama.
“These five years are the worst five years of my life,” says 55-year-old Abu Ala’a, just 200 meters away from the giant gray walls of the Gush Katif settlement bloc and multiple gun outposts. “There are no jobs. Many people have been killed. My house has been damaged.” Everywhere are pictures of the dead, almost all of them young men struck down in the course of the five-year Palestinian uprising.
Residents like Abu Ala’a in this southern Gaza city, home to around 250,000 people, found their houses on a war zone’s frontline when the intifada erupted in September 2000. Now they hope for tangible improvements in their life.
Palestinian leaders and aid agencies are aware a failure to meet the expectations of Gaza’s 1.3 million people could lead to further bloodshed. Even as he celebrates the withdrawal, Abu Ala’a makes clear he is exhausted from the conflict.
“The situation was better 20 years ago. Now everything has changed drastically. The intifada was the first time, the Israelis used their tanks, helicopters and jets. It was very harsh.” Abu Ala’a had to move his seven-member family away Al-Tufah checkpoint, where the Israeli army bulldozed and shelled homes, and has just moved them back to the shell-scarred building.
“I want the economy to improve. I want the Palestinian Authority to rebuild the houses that have been demolished by the Israelis. I want the freedom to move freely from Gaza to the West Bank to Egypt,” he says.
Down the street, teenagers ride bikes and scamper close to the 20-foot cement blast walls, sealing off the Jewish settlement. A 14-year-old also named Ala’a says he just wants to go swimming. He hasn’t gone to the sea in five years despite its proximity to Khan Younis. “I want peace. I want a seaport. I want them to rebuild the schools, hospital and factories that have been destroyed,” he says. But Ala’a is far from optimistic. “The fighting will start again in two to three years,” he says.
