By Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- One year after Israel began its evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and withdrew its troops after 38 years of military occupation, life remains hard in the overpopulated Gaza Strip enclave, if not even worse, because of the continued fights and Israeli blockade.
In the Netzarim settlement in the heart of the Gaza Strip enclave, ruins of settlers' houses and piles of rubbles lined upon the sides of whitened and dusty paths, seeming to be shadowing the Palestinian people's hope of a better Gaza Strip.
"Any one who raised people's hope that Gaza would be Hong Kong or Dubai was voicing stupidity, legal ignorance or was marketing fiction for the people," Raji Sorani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said.
"The number of dead and wounded civilians in the past two months set a record than any other month in the whole years of Palestinian Intifada (Uprising)," added Sorani who insisted on calling the Israeli's actions "redeployment" rather than withdrawal.
In the coastal Gaza Strip enclave, where 1.4 million people are living, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in two months,the only power plant was bombed and all crossing points are sealed off.
"We were thinking that life after the (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year would be better, but what happened was the opposite. Our life turned into destruction, incursions, blood and airstrikes," said a local Palestinian.
According to Sorani, Israel locked up the Palestinians in a "big prison" after one Israeli soldier were abducted by Palestinian militant groups from an Israeli army base southeast Gaza Strip on June 25.
Israel launched an air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip on June 28. Medics sources in Gaza hospitals showed that over 200 Palestinians, including 40 children, were killed and 600 others were injured during the Israeli offensives dubbed "Summer Rains", which is still in action.
Israel said that the operations were aimed to free the captive soldier Gilad Shalit and halt Palestinian militant groups' rocket attacks against Israel.
However, the Palestinians claimed that the capturing of the Israeli soldier was for the purpose of exchanging him for the 10,000 prisoners held in Israel.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which led the raid with two allied factions, also sees the seizure as a show of defiance against Israel that they thought should be responsible for their financial crisis, deepened after the Hamas took office in late March 2006.
By running in and winning the second Palestinian parliamentary elections on Jan. 25, Hamas defied not only Israel, but also the United States and the European Union, the biggest donors for the Palestinians, who insist that Hamas should not involve in politics unless it recognizes Israel's right of existence, gives up armed resistance and recalls peace deals.
Hamas' victory in the elections incurred political isolation and a tight Israeli siege on Gaza Strip, with suspension of direct aid fund to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
As part of the sanctions, Israel shut down important commercial crossings, just as the Palestinians were ready to export their fruits, as part of an internationally-encouraged project to take advantage of the thousands of greenhouses left by Israel in Gaza.
Now in Netzarim settlement, the greenhouses were empty of either farmers or even plant. A few security guards patrolling there told Xinhua that farmers no longer came to work in these greenhouses.
This is because most of their products would only lay waste due to the Israeli siege.
"We produced 16,500 tons of vegetables, but we could export only 4,350 tons," said Mohammed Bader, production and operations manager at Gaza Agriculture Project (GAP), a program created to manage the greenhouses and see to the export of vegetables to European markets.
As the products were ready to be exported, Israel closed the nearby Karni commercial crossing in February 2006, according to Bader. At that time, the ripe cherry tomatoes had no place to go but to be thrown onto the ground.
"It was an experience that taught us not to be optimistic when it comes to the Israeli side," said Bader, saying no decisions have yet been taken to replant in the greenhouses for the coming season.
Israel began its evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip on Aug. 15, 2005, after 38 years of occupation.
In the pullout devised by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a bid to break from years of conflict with the Palestinians, Israel evacuated 8,500 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip that had taken up almost a fifth of the territory. Enditem
