GAZA CITY: Gaza marked the first anniversary of the start of Israel's pullout from the coastal strip Tuesday amid bitterness that the end of the Jewish settlements did not bring an end to occupation and bloodshed. At midnight on August 15, 2005, Israel began withdrawing 8,000 Jewish settlers and thousands of troops from Gaza, the start of a month-long operation to end the country's 38-year occupation. But a year later residents in the impoverished strip continue to die from Israeli fire, the economy is in shambles and the mood is grim.
"They say they withdrew, but the occupation is going on in Gaza," said Abu Yasser, 50, a shop owner in Gaza City. "They're still everywhere and the killing and the shelling is continuing despite the withdrawal."
Immediately following the pullout last year, hope was high in both Gaza and Israel that the move would mark a major step toward a Palestinian state on the one hand, and security for Israel on the other.
But the optimism was short-lived.
For Palestinians, Israel still tightly controlled the borders of the territory and the army continued to carry out raids targeting militants in the strip, strikes that often left civilians dead.
For Israel, Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets from the strip into the country and smuggle weapons.
The situation further deteriorated after Hamas swept to power after a January parliamentary elections. The Islamist movement enjoyed massive support for having spearheaded attacks against the occupation and developing a very efficient charity network.
Gaza's fragile economy took another hit when the Palestinian Authority's Western bankrollers decided to cut off aid until the Hamas-dominated government recognized Israel's right to exist.
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And on June 28, Israel launched a massive offensive into Gaza, three days after militants killed two soldiers and abducted a third during a cross-border raid.
Since then, at least 175 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, most of them civilians.
Much of the infrastructure of Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated areas with 1.4 million residents, has been destroyed, including its sole power plant. In the heat of the Mediterranean summer, electricity became rationed and sewage left untreated.
The sealing off of the territory has been hermetic, with the only crossing point to the outside world, to Egypt in the southern town of Rafah, closed almost non-stop.
"Many Palestinians hoped Gaza would become the embryo for an independent Palestinian state, but this hope has disappeared because of Palestinian leaders' inability to build [a state] and continued Israeli offensives," said Hani Habib, journalist and political analyst.
"It is now clear, one year after the departure of Israeli forces, that the occupation is continuing," Habib added. "Israel still exercises total control over all aspects of inhabitants' lives."
"The economic situation has deteriorated dramatically. There's no buyers, no sellers, no way out of Gaza and no life here. Everything has stopped and we don't know if or when it's going to get any better," said Said Yasser, a shop owner in Gaza City.
"The siege is everywhere, on the government, on the president, on the people," he lamented.
"We thought that the situation would get better ... We thought that there would be freedom of movement ... after the liberation of Gaza," said Said Elias, an employee at a hospital in Gaza City. "But the opposite happened. The situation is the worst we have ever faced. And the Israeli aggression has become more cruel ... We are in a new prison called Gaza."
