Zionist apartheid at work in Gaza

You can smell the sea but the Israeli's blocked access to it. For the children of Rafah, the beach was a dream and the ruins of homes bulldozed by the Israeli army their only playground.

Nine-year-old Warda Abu Armaana could smell the sea from her home, her first house was razed to the ground. Her family had to leave their second home because it was too vulnerable to the Israeli soldiers' frequent pot shots.

She remembers going to the beach once, but it was in the north of the narrow 45-kilometre-long territory, because the southern coast near Rafah is part of the Rafah Yam settlement.

Mahmoud Barbakh and Mohammed Jaroun grew up just a few minutes from the Mediterranean, but had never been to the beach. On Monday 12th September 2005, with thousands of others they skirted the massive coils of barbed wire and waded into the waves with their jeans rolled up, then abandoned all caution and threw themselves into the surf. "It was the sweetest thing in the whole world," said 15-year-old Mahmoud.

Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip made their fun possible. In southern Gaza, Israeli settlements took up the beachfront for three decades, and Palestinians in that area were barred by Israeli troops from reaching the Mediterranean.

After the last Israelis left Monday, Palestinians, many for the first time, including many giddy teenagers, enjoyed the water. One used a refrigerator door as a makeshift surfboard.

Mohammed Deir, 41, said he closed his building supplies store in celebration. "The only job I have today is to go to the beach and the border," he said. Offshore an Israeli navy boat patrolled the coast.