GAZA CITY, 10 September 2005 — Israeli and Palestinian officials yesterday confirmed that no Israeli soldier will remain in the Gaza Strip by Tuesday. The Israeli Army dismantled the bridge, which is located between the military checkpoints Abu Hooly and El-Matahen in the middle of the Gaza Strip, and connects the Gush Katif settlement with the Kissufem crossing that leads to Israel.
The Israeli Army blew up its last military posts in the Gaza Strip yesterday in final preparations for completing the pullout early next week after 38 years of occupation.
Residents on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border were shaken out of bed by loud blasts as troops dynamited several security offices in the north of the territory, a precursor to turning over the razed settlements to the Palestinians.
Military sources said the withdrawal, following on the heels of 8,500 Jewish settlers evacuated last month, should begin tomorrow and will be over in 24 hours.
But Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the pullout, marking Israel’s first uprooting of settlements on land the Palestinians want for a state, could be delayed a day because of uncertainty over the fate of the 25 synagogues in the former enclaves.
US mediators hope the withdrawal under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan will serve as a catalyst for renewed peacemaking. But Palestinians are watching with a mixture of joy and skepticism. They fear Israel is trading tiny Gaza for a permanent hold on much larger swathes of the occupied West Bank where 245,000 settlers live.
In Gaza City, scores of loyalists fired in the air and vowed revenge as ex-security chief Moussa Arafat, cousin of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, was buried two days after gunmen dragged him from his house and killed him in the street.
The assassination of Arafat underlined the turmoil in the Gaza Strip and increased fears of an internal strife after Israel completes its pullout.
It could also bode ill when Gazans take to the streets in celebration after the Israelis leave. The Palestinian Authority’s official celebrations will have to compete with parades by militants claiming victory over the Jewish state.
