“I'm happy that I won't see settlers after today,” exclaimed Nehad Basher. The fourteen-year-old boy stood on the roof of his family's four-story house in Deir Al Balah City, watching the long line of trucks and moving vans entering and leaving the soon-to-be-emptied Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom.

Nehad Basher and his father could see from their rooftop the anti-disengagement “command center” in Kfar Darom, which looked like a tent located roughly in the center of the settlement and topped by an orange flag.  Many of the red-tile-roofed houses also flied the orange flag, the color adopted by the anti-withdrawal faction.

Yahya Basher, Nehad's father, can't hide his happiness: “It's finally over—all the torture we endured at the hands of those settlers.  The day they all leave has to be a festival for me!”  Over the years, his house has been shot at, tear gas canisters have landed inside; his wife and children have been beaten while in their own orange and olive groves.  

His face grew grave as he explained how three years ago, his family's 27 donums of planted land were confiscated outright by the Israeli Army to “improve the security” of the Kfar Darom settlement. Unlike the settlers who will receive substantial financial compensation, Palestinians whose land was expropriated or houses destroyed received nothing. The Basher family hope to reclaim and replant their land.

In the same Deir al-Balah neighborhood—not far from the Bashers’ house—an old woman wearing a married woman's white mendeel (headscarf) was looking through a broken window in a wall so riddled with bullet holes, resembling a sieve.  It's hard to find a good translation for the joyful, shrill words Palestinian women sometimes utter; it is a kind of victory cry edged with angry lament.

Umm Mohammed was born in Askelan, which is part of what is now Israel.  Her words sounded vengeful: “I could not stop cheering when I saw those settlers being removed by the Israeli army, suffering as they have made us suffer.”  The words were harsh, but the bullet holes—too many to count—in the wall of her house that faced Kfar Darom told their own story.  

Like so many Palestinian houses close to Israeli settlements, Umm Mohammed’s house, which has been a target for Israeli bullet fire for decades, bears testimony to the polar opposite of a “good neighbor policy.”  Many times the residents could figure out no reason at all for the hail of Israeli bullets. Sometimes the bullets came from the armed settlers; other times from the Israeli soldiers in sniper towers. Now, for the first time in years, Umm Mohammed can look through the window of her own house in relative safety.

The Israeli Army was worried that the withdrawal would be marked by Palestinian attacks, but so far, Hamas and the other militant factions have kept their word

to take no hostile action against the departing settlers. Throughout Gaza, the children of the neighborhoods near the settlements have been well-nigh unstoppable; dashing barefoot over the broiling sand, they plant the Palestinian flag as close as possible to settlement walls. Palestinian Authority soldiers have formed rough perimeters to keep the children at a safe distance, but none of the exuberant children have been hurt.

The Western mainstream media have been hailing the Gaza disengagement as a first step on the way of restarting the stagnant peace process, but many Gazans are not that optimistic. Baker Abdul-Raheem from Khan Younis in southern Gaza wondered: “What exactly will we get out of this disengagement? The Israelis will control the borders, the airspace, and the seacoast! They will be right outside the borders ready to re-invade whenever they please!”

Certainly, despite heavy pressure from the international community, many vital questions of border control are still unanswered. “Of course,” Abdul-Raheem continued, “it isn't a bad thing to have the checkpoints removed and to move freely around Gaza. Hopefully, the farmers will get their land back and the people residing near the settlements will no longer live in fear. That's not bad for sure. But does it make us a sovereign nation? How can we have a free country with the Israelis controlling the borders?”

Guns abandoned—or poised and ready?

Will Gaza finally have a taste of peace? Some of the militants, in light of the recurring truce violations, and the ongoing violence in the West Bank, are less than optimistic.

The Sharon government has been insisting on its demands that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, “crack down on terrorists.” However, Abbas has preferred to negotiate and include the militant factions in the political process. In a recent speech given during a celebration at the Gaza City harbor, Abbas declared that there should be no separate militant factions.

However, Mahmoud Al Zahar, a Hamas political spokesman, said that as long as the Israeli occupation remains, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, armed resistance is an option. “Asking us to disband al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) is a crime,” he told the reporters at a Gaza City celebration on August 12. "That force should remain armed and ready to protect Palestinians."

Although the Western mainstream press has been talking of a "historic breakthrough," a few Palestinians believe Ariel Sharon has undergone a complete transformation and suddenly become their champion. Disengagement was a unilateral Israeli decision, and the specific details of the withdrawal from Gaza were as difficult for the Palestinian authorities to ascertain as for the settlers. Whether this is really a step toward a lasting, just peace, or another brutally frustrating dead end for ordinary citizens on both sides of the Green Line, only time will tell.