Thousands of Palestinians poured into abandoned Jewish settlements early this morning as the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza Strip to complete Israel's pullout after 38 years of occupation.
Initial plans by Palestinian police to bar the crowds from the settlements for the first few hours quickly disintegrated as thousands of elated Palestinians converged on the abandoned settlements.
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President
Just after sunrise, the last column of tanks rumbled out of Gaza, passing through the Kissufim crossing into Israel. Gaza commander Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi drove through the crossing and became the last Israeli soldier to leave.
"The mission has been completed, and an era has ended," he said after crossing into Israel. Israeli troops then raised their national flag, removed from Gaza military headquarters, on the Israeli side of coastal strip.
"Today is a day of joy and happiness that our people were deprived of in the past century," said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, adding that the Palestinians still have a long path toward statehood.
He denounced Israeli rule in Gaza as "aggression, injustice, humiliation, killing and settlement activity".
Israel's pullout marks the first time the Palestinians will have control over a defined territory, and Gaza is seen as a testing ground for Palestinian aspirations of statehood.
Israel removed some 8,500 Gaza settlers from their homes in 21 settlements last month, and destroyed homes and most buildings in the communities. However, the Israeli cabinet decided yesterday to leave 19 synagogue buildings intact, drawing complaints from the Palestinians and criticism from the United States.
After rushing into the settlements early today, Palestinians set fire to three empty synagogues, in the Morag, Kfar Darom and Netzarim settlements, as well as a Jewish seminary in Neve Dekalim.
"While we are happy the Israelis have left Gaza . . . we really have no hope for the future here in the West Bank," said Ramallah resident Munya Mahmoud (38).
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made clear that Israel intends to hold onto - and keep building - its much larger settlement blocs in the West Bank, where 245,000 Jewish settlers live in protected isolation from 2.4 million Palestinians.
He has also vowed never to give up mostly Arab East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for their capital.
Those areas are steadily being enclosed in a barrier that Israel says stops suicide bombers but Palestinians call a land grab to deny them a viable state.
Israel's attachment to the West Bank, a cradle of Jewish religion and culture, has always been much stronger than to tiny Gaza. Both were captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Though four small settlements in the northern West Bank were evacuated last month along with Gaza, 120 settlements remain. Ultranationalists who see the occupied land as Israel's by biblical birthright warn against trying any further pullouts.