A library photo of Palestinians at the Rafah crossing.

RAFAH, September 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – It has always been the dream of Palestinians in Rafah to reunite with their families on the Egyptian side of the southern Gaza Strip city. Now it can come true after the Israeli pullout.

“Words are poor to express how happy I’m with the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Only now I can see my relatives after years of arbitrary Israeli bans,” Amina Abdel Rahman, 55, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, September 1.

Mohammad Al-Nahal, who lives in the Egyptian side of Rafah, said the Palestinians can now breathe freely and feel secure thanks to the planned deployment of Egyptian troops to the Egyptian side of Rafah.

“We can now lead normal lives after the deployment of Egyptian soldiers and the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces,” he said.

The Israeli parliament on Wednesday, August 31 approved a deal to hand control of a buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border to Egyptian forces after Israel completes its pullout from the territory.

The agreement sanctions the deployment of 750 Egyptian border guards on the Egyptian side of the Gaza frontier to replace Israeli troops stationed in the Salahudin (Philadelphi) corridor.

Israel evacuated all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank in August under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians.

Israeli military forces are to pull out of Gaza by late September, handing control of the entire territory to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Adnan Barhoum said barriers and walls will no longer separate Palestinians of Rafah.

After the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, Israel set up a 10-meter high razor-wired wall stretching for nine kilometers between both sides and often deny many Palestinians to return home once they left for a catalogue of excuses.

“Though we are only 250 meters away, I can’t see my brothers living in Egyptian Rafah,” added Abdullah Al-Shaar, who lives in the Palestinian side of Rafah.

Salem Al-Erian, a Palestinian Rafah resident, said the people of Rafah woke up to find their city divided into two; one in a country and the other part in another.

“Ironically, the Israeli occupation army has never respected international border demarcation save Rafah,” he said.

Dozens of Palestinian families were scattered across both sides of Rafah following the signing of the Camp David Accords by president Mohammad Anwar El-Sadat of Egypt and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in 1978 under the auspices of US president Jimmy Carter.

With the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula in 1982, Egypt and Israel demarcated their borders, dividing Rafah into two sectors on the Palestinian and Egyptian borders.

Osama Sabry have not seen his wife and children for three years. But the end of 38 years of Israeli occupation revived his hopes.

“My wife left for Rafah on the Egyptian side to visit her family, but she was later denied an Israeli permission to allow her in,” he said in an emotional voice.

“I have suffered too much pain since they left. I could not even see my new-born baby who is now three-year-old.”

But some Palestinians are wary of the Israeli control over the airspace and Gaza crossings, like the main Rafah or Erez checkpoint, after the pullout, which could turn the strip into an open-air prison.

Israel usually shuts down the Rafah crossing under security excuses.

The suffering of Palestinian travelers swelled in August of last year when the occupation army closed the checkpoint for up to 17 consecutive days.

Some 3,000 men, women and children of all ages were crammed into a parking lot about half the size of a soccer field with only two doors for ventilation and straw mats serving as beds.