Israel pulls out last Gaza settlements

SANUR, West Bank -- Israeli forces armed with riot gear, saws and wire cutters evicted militant holdouts from two Jewish settlements Tuesday, completing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a corner of the West Bank.\nThe relative ease and lack of violence with which Israel pulled out of the 25 settlements in just a week was a setback to Israel's ultra-nationalist movement, which for months had mounted vocal and dramatic resistance.\nPalestinian and Israeli leaders as well as President Bush said the pullout -- the first time Israel has abandoned territory Palestinians claim for their future state -- opened new opportunities for peace negotiations.\nBush said Monday the pullout has cleared the way for the resumption of peacemaking. \n"In the heart of the Middle East a hopeful story is unfolding," he said.\nMobilized for the final push, about 10,000 soldiers and police overwhelmed extremists protesting the pullout in the West Bank settlements of Sanur and Homesh. SWAT teams sprayed a fire hose on dozens of extremists, sliced through steel bars of a shuttered seminary and bulldozed a barbed-wire barricade to storm rioters pelting troops with eggs and tin cans.\nThe settler evacuations concluded the mawjor piece of the unilateral pullout Sharon envisioned 18 months ago, aimed at reducing friction with the Palestinians, easing Israel's military burden, and tightening its hold on the West Bank heartland where most of the 240,000 Jewish settlers live.\nIsrael said homes in the abandoned settlements will be destroyed in 10 days, part of an agreement with the Palestinians.\nSince the evacuation operation began eight days ago, the army said 15,000 people were removed from Gaza and the West Bank settlements -- far more than the 9,000 who actually lived there, an indication of the fierce resistance mounted by hard-liners backing the settlers.\nIn Gaza, the Palestinian Authority plans to build multistory apartments in their place to ease an acute housing shortage. In the West Bank, Israel is destroying homes to prevent Jewish extremists from returning there.\nExplosions were heard late Tuesday in the abandoned settlement of Dugit, where Palestinian officials said Israelis had advised them they would be blowing up buildings and installations. With the civilians gone, Israel must destroy its military bases before staging its own withdrawal -- within a few weeks--and end the 38--year occupation of the coastal strip.\nIsraeli doves, who said little while Sharon battled his own hawkish party to push through the withdrawal plan, were jubilant.\n"This is the beginning of a process we always regarded as necessary. The hope is the state of Israel is coming back to sanity," said Tsali Reshef, a leader of the Peace Now movement.