Rafah watches as Israel withdraws

By Alan Johnston
BBC News, Gaza

Many Palestinians in Rafah are happy that the settlers are leaving

A Palestinian family called the Othmans has been following the evacuation of Gaza's settlements on satellite television.

They have watched the Israeli soldiers work with determination, but compassion and restraint.

And the settlers have had many months of warning that they would lose their homes.

But the Othman family says it was all very different when the Israeli army came to call on them, in the Rafah refugee camp, one night last winter.

The soldiers came with bulldozers and, as they smashed the neighbourhood, the Othmans ran for their lives.

The family's 65-year-old grandmother, Serria, said the air was full of gunfire as she stumbled out into the darkness.

"Some of our walls had fallen down, and I said to the children - 'Get out! They'll bring the house down on top of us' And we escaped."

"How could they want to demolish the house on us? - on the kids? They didn't warn us to get out. They're criminals."

But actually, the Othmans were lucky.

Bulldozers

Holes were torn in the kitchen, and a bathroom, and a bedroom was wrecked - but the house stayed standing.

The holes have been patched, and the family has moved back in.

I'm happy that the settlers are going. I'm happy in my heart because my dream was to be liberated Serria Othman Rafah resident

But the bulldozers pulled down the whole of the neighbouring block.

Many families lost everything they owned.

The Shuhuut neighbourhood lies very close to Gaza's border with Egypt - which is patrolled by Israeli troops.

They have often been attacked by Palestinian militants from groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

The Israelis had a policy of bulldozing residential areas that they said provided cover for their enemies.

'Our homeland'

The United Nations says that 16,000 Palestinians had their homes destroyed in Gaza.

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Serria Othman said that nobody ever attacked the soldiers from her home. But she says the assaults on the army were justified.

She said she had first come to Rafah as a refugee and seven-year-old child.

She had walked from the village of Hatta - in what is now Israel - after Israeli forces overran it in the war of 1948.

Eighteen years later, the Israelis occupied Gaza.

"They don't have the right to take our homeland - Palestine - and then take the Gaza Strip as well," she said.

"Why are we struggling? Because we're enduring injustice.

"I'm happy that the settlers are going. I'm happy in my heart because my dream was to be liberated."