Word: gaza
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...difficult metamorphosis began in earnest last week when the Israelis completed their withdrawal from two enclaves of Palestinian self-rule, one surrounding Jericho in the West Bank, the other covering most of the Gaza Strip. In both areas, civilian affairs were turned over to P.L.O. control, as was public order and safety. To replace the occupying forces, some 3,000 Palestinian troops, arriving from exile mostly in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, were put to work as soldiers and policemen -- a force that is to eventually grow...
...Gaza Strip there was trouble from the start. As Israeli soldiers pulled out of their last outpost in the city of Gaza, they were pelted with stones by Palestinian demonstrators. Yet stones could prove to be the least of Israel's problems. Under the self-rule agreement, about 5,000 Jewish settlers remain in the Gaza Strip. They are protected by Israeli soldiers and -- at least in theory -- by P.L.O. forces against Palestinian militants, especially Muslim extremists who remain opposed to peace with Israel. After the turnover, Jewish settlers were fired at and wounded on four occasions in the Gaza...
While the Gaza Strip remained tense at week's end, P.L.O. leaders said they were sanguine that they would soon manage to quiet the enclave. Freih Abu Middain, a leading P.L.O. official in Gaza, estimated that it would take a week for Palestinian security forces to establish order. There was powerful motivation, since Israel has made further withdrawals in the West Bank conditional on the success of the Gaza-Jericho experiment. "We have an enormous responsibility to protect our achievements," said Lieut. Colonel Munther Irshaid, the P.L.O. officer in charge of municipal affairs in Jericho. "We cannot afford mistakes...
Vanguards of an eventual 9,000-strong Palestinian police force arrived in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They were boisterously welcomed by Palestinians as the first tangible sign of the transition to self-rule. The armed, uniformed force announced that its first priority will be to disarm thousands of civilians. Meanwhile, the P.L.O. began to set up the governmental structures that will control the two areas...
With the future so uncertain, there was little jubilation in the territories. "We will be starting off with difficulties in all fields," said Sobhi Terhy, a carpenter in Gaza City. Throughout the Gaza Strip and Jericho, the Palestinian flags that first went up last September were faded and worn. But the widespread sobriety was perhaps a good thing. Wild expectations have long been a weakness of the Palestinians. Now they have the task of building more and dreaming less...