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After having covered a number of Israeli military incursions into the Gaza Strip since September 2000, aimed at "destroying" or reducing the military capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a parenthesis not seen since 1994 opened before my eyes in the spring of 2005. For the first time since the Oslo Accords, destitute Gaza has begun to dream of peace and prosperity. Neither the Palestinians themselves, nor the international observers, nor the frequent visitors to this narrow strip of land, of which I was a part, dared to believe it. History stumbled only a few weeks before it proved them right. And yet the hope raised by the evacuation of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, announced by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, fed the wildest dreams. Gaza saw itself as the new Dubai. A regular target of IDF bombings and incursions, the governorate of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip believed it was a safe haven to be...
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