Palestinian security force install a Palestinian flag near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom. (Reuters)

By Sharhabil Al-Gharib, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, August 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – As Israel officially started Monday, August 15, its much-awaited withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, rejoicing Palestinians are looking forward to restoring their farmlands usurped by Israel to build its 21 Jewish settlements scattered across the Strip.

"I heaved a sigh of relief to see the Zionists pull out of my land," Mohammad Khamis, a resident of the village of Beit Lahiya, told IslamOnline.net.

Khamis’s 152-donum (152,000 square meters) piece of land was forcibly seized and became part of the Ily Sinai settlement.

"It was a picturesque and bushy piece of land before being uprooted by Israeli bulldozers," he recalled.

Khamis, now 65, hopes that large swathes of the liberated land would become farmlands and housing compounds to meet the needs of some 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

"I will donate part of my land to build health care centers, hospitals or schools to serve my fellow Palestinians."

Israel officially launched its Gaza Strip pullout early Monday sending police and soldiers to deliver 48-hour eviction notices in Jewish settlements where hundreds of hardliners blocked gates and vowed defiance.

The occupation army sealed off the occupied Gaza Strip overnight and began deploying after daybreak to tell settlers they must leave by Wednesday, August 17, or be forcibly removed.

The pullout to end Israel's 38-year occupation of Gaza Strip is hailed by Palestinians as a victory and decried by Israeli opponents as a surrender to the Intifada and resistance.

But some Palestinians fear Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon devised the Gaza plan as a ruse to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live.

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Wael Salman, 40, was also stripped of his 150-donum land, which was later annexed to the Ily Sinai settlement.

"I’m really over the moon to live and see our land librated after years of occupation," he told IOL.

"No more checkpoints, no more harassment by Israeli troops and no more insecurity."

Aref Abu Samra, who once owned 80 donums, was equally jubilant.

"It has been always our dream to see our land liberated and enter the Gaza Strip victorious."

He said the liberated territories should be given back to their Palestinian owners.

"The government is expected to build its promised social welfare projects on public-property land," he added.

Mahmoud Hamduna, 74, says the Israeli pullout and evacuation of Jewish settlers breathed new life into the Gaza Strip.

"Stability will prevail after the Israeli withdrawal" he expected.

"My grandsons and I can now cultivate our land and live happily ever after."

IOL’s correspondent says that some Palestinians still have the keys of homes razed by Israel to build settlements as hard evidence on their inalienable rights.

Others hold onto their title deeds, some dating back to the Ottoman Empire.

The Palestinian Authority has declared land within Jewish settlements as off-limits to business moguls and investors.

It has warned that some title deeds had been forged and that it would not recognize any land sale in areas where Jewish settlements have been built.

A special court set up by the PA has ruled that only five percent of settlement space is private property.

The Gaza Strip’s overall space is 363,7 square kilometers. Settlements were built on 116,5 square kilometers gobbling up 32,13 percent of the territory.