Israel pulls out of Gaza Strip after 38-year occupation

ISRAEL'S army was to begin its operation to pull out of the Gaza Strip last night after the cabinet gave the final green light for the historic withdrawal from the territory after a 38-year occupation.

Operation Last Watch which should see the last troops leave around dawn today, after which responsibility for the territory will pass formally to the Palestinian Authority.

The last potential stumbling block, a wrangle over the fate of around 20 synagogues, was brushed aside when ministers voted to leave the structures standing and leave their fate up to the Palestinians.

The vote on the synagogues infuriated the Palestinian Authority, which argued that it could not guarantee the protection of what many in Gaza see as symbols of the occupation. This led them to boycott and Israel to subsequently cancel a planned handover ceremony at the main Erez crossing.

Troops had already packed up their equipment last night and were awaiting final orders to cross back into Israel.

Apart from the synagogues, almost all of the 21 former settlements, mainly concentrated in southern Gaza, have been reduced to rubble in the three weeks since their Jewish residents were uprooted by the army and police.

Only a few municipal buildings are also still standing, with both sides having agreed that the settlers' homes would be inappropriate to meet the housing needs of the 1.3 million Palestinian population.

Several hundred Palestinians gathered yesterday around the edge of the Gush Katif settlement bloc, anxious to catch a glimpse of the Israelis leaving.

After the last of the soldiers have left, teams of Palestinian security officials will sweep the evacuated settlements. They are to search for possible landmines and other booby-trapped devices that may have been left behind by radical opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

Officials do not intend to allow the general public into the vacated settlements for at least a fortnight.