A Palestinian boy sitting in the sand in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The PA is planning to use the property nearby after it is evacuated to house refugees. (Reuters)
Palestinian ministries are busy preparing for the post-disengagement era in Gush Katif and the northwest corner of Gaza, planning among other things for the construction of thousands of apartments in the areas evacuated in Gush Katif, to resettle refugees now living in camps in Gaza.
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The government decision in June said the houses and synagogues that are evacuated will be demolished, and that an effort would be made to transfer the properties to a "third party" like the UN or World Bank.
Lately, there has been reconsideration of the decision regarding the future of the buildings, in light of the changed administration in the PA and the emerging cooperation between Israel and the PA for the disengagement. The defense establishment also thinks that demolishing the buildings in the settlements after evacuating the residents will require a considerable and unjustified effort.
Defense sources in Israel said that the PA is already busy with plans for the settlement areas after the evacuation. The Palestinian Housing Ministry has plans for high-rise apartment buildings in Gush Katif, apparently to house refugees from the camps, particularly the overpopulated Jabalya and Shati camps on the edges of Gaza City. Refugees from Khan Yunis have also expressed interest in moving to such new housing.
But such a plan has two main difficulties. The first is ideological. Resettling refugees could be regarded as giving up the Palestinian demand for the right of return. The second difficulty would be that the large clans in Khan Yunis are already claiming the settlement lands and are not interested in the PA using what they regard as their property, for the benefit of refugees, and especially not refugees from other areas. The clans are demanding that Gasa refugees be resettled in the Netzarim area, near the city.
During the 1970s, the military government tried to resettle refugees, and thousands from Shati were resettled in Sheikh Radwan, in west Gaza. New, smaller neighborhoods were built on the edges of the camps in the center of Gaza. The efforts were partially successful, despite sweeping PLO objections to the plan.
The PA security forces are already planning to take over the settlement areas after the IDF leaves, on the understanding that if Hamas or other groups get in first, it will be very difficult to evict them. The plan is to deploy 22 brigades of the National Security forces in the 22 settlements evacuated, a brigade for each settlement
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