Gaza withdrawal: Hakeem Abu Samra

The BBC News website and BBCArabic.com spoke to four Israelis and four Palestinians for their thoughts after Israel completed its withdrawal of settlers from Gaza and some parts of the West Bank.

MEET THE PANEL Name:Hakeem Abu Samra Age:47 Lives: Beit Lahiya, Haza Works:Government employee

This is a time of great happiness for us. First of all, our people will get back their lands from the settlements, which will mean a lot for them.

Then, as soon as we get land back we will think about what we can do with it.

First we must think of improving the economic situation for ourselves and Gaza.

This will in turn be reflected in the improved lives of the Palestinian people living in Gaza.

GAZA PANEL: FINAL REACTION Hakeem Abu Samra Lama Hourani Ashraf Abualarab Abdullah Algazawi Ayelet Goldman Shimon Klein Anita Tucker Arlene Kushner

Many are poor and unemployment is rife, so redeveloped land will give people a chance to get a job.

I watched the evacuation of Gaza and the West Bank settlements on television.

I can understand their pain, but it makes us happy to know they are going because they caused a lot of suffering to the Palestinian people.

We hope Gaza will be the first step and the West Bank will be the second. We do not accept having settlements among us, expanding, taking our land and bothering people. We want to be left alone.

US President George W Bush says he hopes for a Palestinian state. This, of course, is nice to hear, but we will ask him to implement this. He has the power to push the Israeli government to accept that all the world is calling for a state.

If you think back to a few months ago, people thought it was impossible to withdraw the settlers from Gaza but they were, so if we are optimistic about having a state then it will be possible one day.

We will fight for it using all means, peacefully and politically. We will do all we can.

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