Israel says Gaza settlements evacuation complete

NETZARIM, Gaza Strip - Israel said it has finished evacuating all Jewish settlements in Gaza, a step towards ending 38 years of occupation on land where Palestinians want a state.

"Right now there are no Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip," said Major-General Dan Harel, the commander in charge of the Gaza evacuation. "The only Israeli citizens (in the strip) are the security forces," he told reporters.

The pullout is Israel's first from land where Palestinians want a state. Some 8500 Jews had settled in the strip, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

Netzarim was the last of 21 Gaza settlements to be evacuated. Two of its families would spend one last night in Gaza, the army said. Both had relatives killed in Palestinian attacks.

"We are leaving against our will, but we are not going with our heads bowed," said Rabbi Tzion Tzion-Tawil. "The saplings which are being uprooted here, we will replant throughout the country until we make our return to Netzarim."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to say he hoped the pullout would open a new page in relations and the two agreed to meet soon, Sharon's office said in a statement. The two last met on June 21.

Abbas called the withdrawal a "brave and historic decision," the Israeli statement said.

PEACE

Washington, the traditional Middle East peace broker, praised both sides for showing leadership.

"In the heart of the Middle East, a hopeful story is unfolding," US President George W. Bush said. "Peace is within reach in the Holy Land."

But in the occupied West Bank, Israeli radicals opposed to ceding settlements dug in for a last stand at two enclaves that were due to be removed on Tuesday under Sharon's pullout plan.

Harel said he expected the handover of Gaza to Palestinian control to be completed sometime in October once Israeli homes are demolished -- and provided there is no violence.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamic movement Hamas, called it a historic and happy moment that would encourage Palestinians to pursue the path of resistance.

But at the behest of Abbas, militants have largely held their fire during the pullout. Tens of thousands of Palestinians celebrated the evacuation at a Hamas rally late on Monday.

The World Court has branded Israel's settlements in Gaza and the West Bank illegal. Israel disputes this.

In Netzarim, soldiers joined settlers in two hours of tearful prayers. Then, men hugged each other and set off on a mournful last procession carrying on their shoulders the large candelabra, or menorah, they removed from the synagogue.

The scene, played out in front of television cameras, was similar to the one depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome in which Roman soldiers bear the sacred Menorah taken as booty from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem after they destroyed it.

The religious farming community of Netzarim, one of the first settlements established in Gaza after the 1967 war, had been a frequent target for militants. Palestinians particularly resented Netzarim because it almost cut the strip in two.

Settlers headed out of Netzarim in buses and cars piled high with belongings under army escort through the strip of sand and barbed wire, guarded by Israeli tanks, that leads through Palestinian-run territory to Israel.

MORE TO COME

Despite the scenes of settlers being dragged weeping from homes and protesters carried screaming from synagogues, the Gaza evacuations took two weeks less than expected.

But more clashes are expected at Sanur and Homesh, two West Bank settlements due to be removed on Tuesday whose numbers are swollen by hundreds of youths from radical outposts. Two other West Bank settlements in Sharon's plan already were evacuated.

Pullout opponents hope to make the two remaining West Bank withdrawals so traumatic it will be much harder to ever consider giving up more settlements in the territory where Israelis see a much stronger biblical claim than to tiny Gaza.

On top of a hulking stone citadel in Sanur, youths stockpiled supplies and welded metal rods into barricades to repel Israeli troops. Draped at the top, a banner proclaimed: "damned is the one who expels his brother from his home."

But settler leaders said they planned only non-violent resistance. Police took up positions at the entrance with a water cannon on standby.

Most Israelis back the plan and the United States hopes it will serve as a catalyst for renewed peacemaking. Rightists say the pullout, celebrated as a victory by militants, rewards the Palestinian uprising which started in 2000.

Sharon says further withdrawals will only come through talks with the Palestinians, which in turn depend on militants being disarmed under a U.S.-backed "road map". Israel has failed to meet its own road map commitment to freeze settlement building.

Palestinians are glad to see the back of the Gaza settlers. But they fear Israel aims to keep most West Bank settlements housing 230,000 people. Some 3.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza.

- REUTERS