Ecstatic crowds of Palestinians flooded into empty Jewish settlements early yesterday, setting abandoned synagogues on fire and smashing and looting ruined buildings in 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, and militant groups hoisted flags and fired wildly into the air, illustrating the weakness of the security forces and concerns about their ability to control growing chaos in Gaza. The pullout is widely seen as a test for Palestinian aspirations of statehood.
Just after sunrise, the last Israeli tanks rumbled out of Gaza. Troops locked a metal gate and hoisted their national flag, removed from the Gaza military headquarters, on the Israeli side of the border.
"The mission has been completed, and an era has ended," said Israel's Gaza commander, Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, the last soldier to leave the strip.
As soldiers drove out of Gaza throughout the night, jubilant Palestinians rushed into the abandoned settlements, turning Gaza's night sky orange as fires roared across the settlements. Women shrieked in joy, teens set off fireworks and crowds chanted "God is great."
"Today is a day of joy and happiness that our people were deprived of in the past century," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said, adding that the Palestinians still have a long path toward statehood. He denounced Israeli rule in Gaza as "aggression, injustice, humiliation, killing and settlement activity."
By midday, the situation had calmed, and curious Palestinians quietly toured the abandoned Jewish settlements, as feelings of newfound freedom began to sink in.
"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 who needed Israeli permits to go in and out of his village, flanked by Israeli settlements. "I don't know what the future will bring, but at least, I can come in and out of my house at any time."
Palestinians hope to build their state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem -- areas that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War -- but fear that Israel will not hand over additional territory. They say Israel's occupation of Gaza has not ended because it retains control over borders and the air space.
Israel says it is committed to the US-backed "road map" peace plan, which calls for an independent Palestinian state, but links any further withdrawals to Abbas' ability to rein in militant groups.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz urged the Palestinians to impose law and order or face a tough response.
"We shall know how to act decisively and intensively in the face of any terrorism," he said.
Abbas refuses to confront militants, insisting he can persuade them to disarm peacefully. He has outlined an ambitious plan to reconstruct Gaza's shattered economy, an effort he believes will bolster the forces of moderation. But he faces a difficult task in Gaza, where militants and armed gangs operate openly and wield considerable power.
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. "These weapons liberated the land and by these weapons, we will continue the liberation process."
As Israel completed its pullout, Palestinian jeeps decorated with the flags of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups stopped just near the border and a group of masked gunmen waved their weapons before Palestinian police moved them away.
Palestinian authorities had promised an orderly transition after the pullout, but the calls for calm were ignored. Police stood by helplessly early yesterday 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.
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 on Sunday to leave 19 synagogue buildings intact, drawing complaints from the Palestinians and criticism from the US.
Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, called the burning of the synagogues "a barbaric act" and accused the Palestinian security of failing its "first mission."
Abbas accused Israel of leaving him with empty, useless buildings on the brink of collapse.
Abbas planned to tour some of the abandoned settlements later yesterday, seeking a glimpse of what were heavily fortified enclaves just weeks ago, and now consisted of piles of smoldering debris.
In Netzarim, an enclave in central Gaza, dozens of people inspected the rubble, and school children climbed on the ruins of a building. Environmental workers gathered samples of rubble for testing.
Several people held posters of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died last year, and pictures of the Hamas leaders killed by Israel, Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
"Today is the beginning of a new era. The battle is still ahead of us. Gaza is only the first step," said Mohammed al-Hindi, the leader of Islamic Jihad.
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