By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip - Jubilant Palestinians charged into Gaza's abandoned Jewish settlements, planting flags on the rubble and firing joyfully in the air on Monday as Israeli troops pulled out to end a 38-year presence.
"This is a day of happiness and joy that the Palestinian people have not witnessed for a century," President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Gaza City.
Palestinian security forces waving victory signs took over as Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles started trundling out in a column after midnight, for the first time giving up settlements on land that Palestinians want for a state.
"We are leaving with our heads high," said army chief of staff Dan Halutz at a flag-lowering ceremony on Sunday.
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Attacking symbols of the hated Israeli occupation, youths set ablaze several of the synagogues left behind in the 21 settlements evacuated last month under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict.
Some Palestinians, chanting "Allahu Akhbar" (God is greatest), brandished pictures of fighters killed in an uprising. Some kissed the ground. Others scampered down to pristine Mediterranean beaches they could not reach for years.
"Today is the happiest day in my life," said Jawad Abu Lafi, 50, after praying amid the rubble of one former settlement.
Flares fired by Israeli troops and fireworks launched by celebrating Palestinians lit up the desert strip that has been scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the uprising that erupted after peace talks failed in 2000.
"We will begin a new life, a life that is empty of fear and occupation," said one woman as celebratory gunfire mingled with ululation.
While welcoming the pullout, the Palestinian Authority fears Sharon is trading Gaza, home to 1.4-million Palestinians, for permanent hold on larger areas of the occupied West Bank where 245 000 Jewish settlers live isolated from 2.4-million Arabs.
Gaza and the West Bank were captured in the 1967 war.
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