NEVE DEKALIM (Gaza Strip): Ahmed Akil put a cautious bare toe into the water, then waded in up to his bluejeans-covered knees. Then, laughing, he flung himself fully clothed into the surf.

The 14-year-old from the Khan Younis refugee camp, less than two miles from the coast, had never before seen the sparkling stretch of Mediterranean beach that fronted the Jewish settlement block of Gush Katif. On Monday, he and thousands of Palestinians flocked to what had been for decades a forbidden shore.

“Finally,” said Akil, emerging sputtering, slick-haired and sand-coated, “I am swimming in our sea. Our very own sea.”

Hours after the last Israeli armoured vehicles rumbled out of the Gaza Strip at first light, ending a nearly four-decade-long military occupation, it was a day given over to rare rejoicing.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, eschewing his usual suit and tie for an open-collared shirt and baseball cap, visited several former settlements to hail what he called a day of freedom for Palestinians.

“Here we are on this piece of land that was taboo for us for 38 years,” he said. “Our people deserve to celebrate.”

With Palestinian police unable or unwilling to hold them back, tens of thousands of Palestinians surged before dawn into the 21 settlements that were last month emptied of their 8,500 Jewish residents but had remained off-limits, guarded by troops and tanks, until the last of the Israeli troops were gone.

Many vented their fury over the Israeli occupation by laying waste to the synagogues that Israeli authorities chose to leave standing.

At the Neve Dekalim synagogue, a club-wielding crowd descended by early morning to smash every window and tear insulation from the walls and ceilings.—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service