BETHLEHEM - Israeli forces rumbled out of Bethlehem yesterday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave the go-ahead for the withdrawal despite Palestinian attacks that killed five people in Israel.
Israeli troops began to leave the Palestinian-ruled West Bank town, birthplace of Jesus, and the neighbouring town of Beit Jala after dark on Sunday local time.
The Army said the withdrawal was completed yesterday.
More than a week of fighting in the town left rubble-strewn streets that will be swept clean and bitterness that will be hard to erase.
The United States, seeking to calm a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence as it tries to bolster Arab support for its anti-terror coalition, mediated the withdrawal agreement.
No violence was reported during the pullout.
"It's like 'Happy New Year'," said Nicola al-Alam as he stood in his pyjamas in the doorway of his Beit Jala home and watched departing Israeli armoured troop carriers roll up a hill. Cheering Palestinian youngsters ran behind the vehicles.
Israeli forces moved in and around six Palestinian towns, including Bethlehem, after the October 17 assassination of far-right cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi by radical Palestinian gunmen avenging Israel's killing of their leader in August.
In an attack early yesterday that had put the pullout in doubt, two Palestinians opened fire on passersby and motorists in the northern Israeli town of Hadera. They killed four women before police shot them dead.
The incident followed a shooting near the border with the West Bank in which an Israeli soldier was killed.
The Palestinian Authority issued a statement condemning the Hadera attack, claimed by the radical Islamic Jihad group.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said in Gaza: "We are following this up to find out who's behind this."
The Israeli Army said the gunmen were members of the Authority's police force, but acted on behalf of Islamic Jihad.
Keeping pressure on Sharon, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on US television he was disappointed to learn of the latest Palestinian attacks, but repeated the US call for Israeli forces to leave Palestinian-controlled territory.
The Army said the pullout went ahead after Israeli and Palestinian commanders agreed that the Palestinian Authority would keep the peace in Bethlehem and Beit Jala.
A leader of Palestinian gunmen in Bethlehem said they would respect a truce if Israeli forces left.
- REUTERS
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Tanks roll out of Bethlehem
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