The final Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip has been evacuated, ending the historic pullout from the area which Israel has controlled since winning it during the Six Day War in 1967. Between 1948 and 1967, Gaza was under Egyptian occupation.
With the Gaza withdrawal all but completed, Israeli troops prepared to leave the coastal strip and hand over control to the Palestinian Authority.
The last settlers and their protester supporters wrapped up a Torah scroll and a large menorah and boarded a fleet of armored buses to leave the area. Israeli troops will soon head to the West Bank to begin the evacuation of the four settlements that are to be evacuated there.
Major General Dan Harel, head of Israel's southern command, declared the evacuation of Gaza over.
'We completed today the evacuation of the Israeli presence from the Gaza Strip,' he said.
The Israeli Defense Forces denied reports of small groups of settlers left behind in the Gaza Strip. Now, all that's left is for the Israeli army to dismantle its bases and formally hand the territory over to the PA.
Harel added, 'We don't plan on allowing any Palestinians into the area until the evacuation process is complete and we feel we are ready.'
The process is expected to take a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told his people, 'We will not close our eyes, we will not rest until they leave all our land,' he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted that there would be no more unilateral withdrawals in the future. Sharon said that future steps towards peace would be taken by the U.S. sponsored road map. That placed the burden on the PA to confront and dismantle terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
'In order to move to the road map, terrorism must stop — terrorism, violence, incitement — terror organizations must be dismantled, their weapons confiscated, serious reforms carried out,' Sharon said.
For now, though, the Palestinians have watched Israel carry out an emotionally difficult withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It was difficult and not without strong opposition, but it was carried out according to the dictates of the government. The next phase may be contingent on the PA doing the same thing.
