Militants enter West Bank

WAVING the flags of rival armed factions, Palestinians poured into four abandoned West Bank Jewish settlements yesterday after Israel completed its evacuation under a plan to “disengage” from conflict.

Unlike the Gaza Strip, which Israel quit earlier this month, the settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Sanur and Homesh are in an area of the occupied West Bank remaining under Israeli army control.

But the army announced the complete removal of soldiers from the enclaves on Tuesday night, leaving them accessible to Palestinians from the nearby city of Jenin.

“Israel should withdraw from all the occupied territory and give the Palestinians the right to have their state,” Zakariya Zubeidi, a leading militant from the dominant Palestinian faction Fatah, said in a speech to followers in Ganim.

Mr Zubeidi and fellow gunmen fired in the air and acted out guerrilla ambushes - a reminder to Israel that a Palestinian revolt, largely in check since a ceasefire was declared in February, could soon resume.

Palestinians welcomed the Israeli withdrawals, but they suspect Israel plans to parlay the Gaza pullout into a permanent hold on much of the West Bank.

There are also internal challenges, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scrambling to preserve the primacy of Fatah against ascendant Islamist groups.

Chief among these is Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in an upcoming Palestinian parliamentary election.