Gazan mistrust at Sharon plan

By Alan Johnston BBC News, Gaza

Cutting through Gaza City, near the beach, is a road called Market Street. It is lively, and run down.

From a mosque loudspeaker, readings from the Koran hang in the air. Car horns blare, and horses snort and stamp as they wait for their carts to be loaded. It is typical Gaza.

Gazans welcome Israel's withdrawal, but are waiting to see it happen

And all along Market Street, people say they do not believe the Israelis will really leave.

However, the Knesset votes on Tuesday on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

"The Israelis don't do what they say," said an elderly man, called Tahir, as he sat outside his shoe shop listening to a radio.

"If they want to withdraw, they're welcome. But we know the Israelis. We know they don't stick to their word."

He had summed up the mood on Market Street.

Those who live and work along it are mainly from families who lost homes in what is now Israel during the war of 1948. And in Gaza they have lived through nearly 40 years of Israeli occupation.

Sharon is just deceiving the world. He's not putting an end to the occupation. He's just deploying his troops in a different way Raji Sourani Palestinian Centre for Human Rights In pictures: Gaza incursion Have Your Say

They find it hard to believe that Israel may really be about to step back.

"We never trust Sharon. Never. He's bitten us a hundred times. He plays games," said 60-year-old Abu Abed, as he emerged from a butcher's shop.

People like him would love to see the Israelis hand over the keys to their settlements here. They are home to just 8,000 or so Israelis, but they take up more than a third of the Gaza Strip.

The space is badly needed by the 1.3 million Palestinians who are crammed into the rest of Gaza - making it one of the most crowded places in the world.

Occupation 'to continue'

And of course there would be delight here if the army left - evacuating its watchtowers and removing the checkpoint that cuts the strip in two at Abu Houilly.

Palestinians would be delighted if the Israeli army left Gaza

But Palestinians say that even if all that happened, it would not mean that the occupation was over.

"Sharon is just deceiving the world," says Raji Sourani, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, in Gaza City.

"He's not putting an end to the occupation. He's just deploying his troops in a different way.

"The Israelis will continue to control the land, sea and air. There will be no port, and no airport. The Israelis will have full control of the movement of the people here, and their connections with the outside world."

He says he sees Mr Sharon's plan as a means of derailing the Palestinian dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Dependence on Israel

The Palestinian view of the legal issues surrounding the proposed withdrawal is shared by the US-based organisation, Human Rights Watch.

It says Israel intends to maintain all the characteristics of military control, which would mean it remaining the occupying power in the eyes of the law.

Back on Market Street, outside the butchers, Abu Abed worried about what that Israeli control would mean economically. He said people from Gaza needed to be allowed to cross into Israel to work.

"If they close the roads we will never have any way of making a living. We will die from hunger. We won't be able to do anything. We'll be in Allah's hands."

Abu Abed used to earn good money as a bus driver in Israel. But that ended with the coming of the violence of the Palestinian uprising.

Israel fears that suicide bombers will slip into Israel among the workers. It has drastically reduced the number of commuters from Gaza.

Abu Abed held up the meat he had brought out of the butchers. He said he had been given it on credit. He said that, at the moment, he just did not have the money to pay for it. He has 14 children.