A convoy of Palestinian police left on Saturday for the Gaza Strip, where they will replace Israelis as law enforcers in the crowded region.
Some were not even born when Israel took the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the 1967 war."It's true I have never been to Gaza," said Suheil Mohammed, 24. "But my family told me about every single street there. It is in my heart."
The Palestinian police force is part of the agreement signed Wednesday by PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that cleared the way for self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
The agreement provides for a force of 9,000 men, 7,000 of them drawn from units stationed outside the occupied lands. The police, armed with Kalashnikovs, will have 45 armored cars and 120 machine guns.
A unit from Jordan planned to arrive in the West Bank town of Jericho on Sunday, and a third was on its way from Iraq.
On Saturday, the 330 men left Ain Jalouta camp in Egypt in a 19-truck convoy. The two trucks at the front had pictures of Arafat and the Palestinian flag painted on their doors. Many of the men waved small flags and flashed V for victory signs.
They were to camp that night across the border from Rafah, Gaza. For many, the view across the fenced no-man's land would be their first glimpse of the poverty-stricken region they would patrol.
PLO officials in Amman, Jordan, said 300 Palestinian police would cross into Jericho on Sunday. The men come from the Jordan-based Badr Brigades of the Palestine Liberation Army.
Another group of 500 Palestinians, from the al-Aqsa Brigades, was on its way to Jordan from Iraq.
In Cairo, PLO chief negotiator Nabil Shaath said a force of 1,500 Palestinian police was expected to cross into the Jericho region on Sunday to take up their duties.