Gaza Sites Are Awash With Palestinians on a New Shore

Ahmed Akil put a cautious bare toe into the water, then waded in up to his bluejeancovered knees. Then, laughing, he flung himself fully clothed into the surf.

The 14-year-old from the Khan Yunis refugee camp, less than two miles from the coast, had never before seen the sparkling stretch of Mediterranean beach that fronted the Jewish settlement block of Gush Katif. On Monday, he and thousands of Palestinians -- robed women, ragged children, even weapons-toting militants -- flocked to what for decades had been a forbidden shore.

“Finally,” Ahmed said, emerging sputtering, slick-haired and sand-coated, “I am swimming in our sea. Our very own sea.”

Hours after the last Israeli armored vehicles rumbled out of the Gaza Strip at first light, ending a nearly four-decade military occupation, the day was given over to rejoicing in what is normally a notably grim little corner of the world.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, eschewing his usual suit and tie for an open-collared shirt and baseball cap, visited several former settlements to hail what he called a day of freedom for Palestinians.

“Here we are on this piece of land that was taboo for us for 38 years,” he said. “Our people deserve to celebrate.”

With Palestinian police unable or unwilling to hold them back, tens of thousands of people surged into the 21 settlements, which were emptied of their 8,500 Jewish residents last month but had remained off-limits, guarded by troops and tanks, until the last of the Israeli soldiers were gone.

At first, those who pushed their way through the wrecked gates and clambered up abandoned watchtowers still draped in camouflage netting were overwhelmingly young men, many of them bearing the banners of rival Palestinian militant factions.

Many vented their fury over the occupation by laying waste to the synagogues that Israeli authorities chose to leave standing. At the Neve Dekalim synagogue, a hulking Star of David-shaped building visible from miles away, a club-wielding crowd had descended by early morning to smash every window and tear insulation from the walls and ceilings.

Later in the day, the oldest and the youngest also made their way into the settlements to marvel. Sheik Abu Salah abu Holi, 85 and clad in a brilliant white headdress, wept as he stood in a thistle-strewn wasteland at the entrance to the Gush Katif block. It had been his clan’s land, razed by Israeli troops to make way for a checkpoint known by his family name.

“You cannot imagine what a paradise it was before, so green and beautiful,” he said. “I will make it that way again.”

Many in this desperately poor territory spent the day combing the settlement ruins and carting off whatever wasn’t bolted down, and much that was. Under a blazing sun, donkey-drawn carts laden with motley salvage, including plastic tubing, scrap metal, wooden pallets and kitchen sinks, clogged roads that were once reserved for soldiers and settlers.

The torching and ransacking of the synagogues angered some Israeli officials. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who joined a Cabinet majority Sunday in voting to reverse government policy and leave the synagogues intact, called it a “barbaric act by people who have no respect for holy sites.”

The structures, from which Israelis had removed Torah scrolls and other sacred objects, were ready targets because they were among the few buildings left standing in the settlements.

Palestinian officials had objected to Israel’s last-minute decision on the synagogues, warning that they could not safeguard the structures against vandals and did not want the job of demolishing them.

Hisham Abdel Razek, a Palestinian lawmaker, accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of creating a situation in which publicized images of the destruction would enhance Sharon’s international standing by reflecting poorly on the Palestinians. Sharon leaves today for a United Nations gathering in New York, where he is expected to be praised for carrying out the Gaza withdrawal.

“Sharon knew very well that with the decision the Cabinet made he was ordering a picture of the Palestinians storming the synagogues to show tomorrow at the U.N. assembly,” Abdel Razek told Israel Radio.

Some Israelis expressed similar sentiments.

“It’s truly unpleasant to see a synagogue burned down, but this destruction was foretold. None of the Cabinet ministers had the illusion that the Palestinian Authority would want, and especially would be able, to save the synagogues from the mob,” leftist lawmaker Yossi Sarid told Israel Radio.

Sharon will return from his U.S. trip to a political season that is already heating up. His conservative Likud Party will decide this month whether to hold early primary elections, and the combination of Israeli national balloting -- scheduled for November 2006 but likely to be moved up -- plus Palestinian elections set for January may mean little progress on peace talks, analysts say.

“The ‘day after’ ... begins today, and the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians goes into a holding pattern, while each side becomes occupied with its own election campaigns,” correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Monday’s Haaretz newspaper.

Other commentators were weighing whether Israel’s 38-year hold over Gaza was worth it.

Ben Caspit, writing in the Maariv newspaper, called the occupation “a resounding historic mistake, arrogant and saturated with blood.” The momentum to continue pulling back in the West Bank will be strong, he predicted.

“The next prime minister, whoever it will be ... will continue the process. The time has come to draw a border for this country, to put up a fence along it, to affix a metal gate and gather inside,” he wrote.

King reported from Neve Dekalim and Ellingwood from Jerusalem.