JERUSALEM -Israeli troops and tanks left the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border after sundown yesterday following a weeklong sweep for militants and weapons-smuggling tunnels, military officials said.
Earlier, an Egyptian mediator met Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tried to persuade reluctant government hawks to support his disengagement plan.
The exit of the last Israeli forces from the Rafah camp appeared to mark the end of the raid, called Operation Rainbow
during which 41 Palestinians were killed and two arms-smuggling tunnels were destroyed.
However, a top army officer said on condition of anonymity that the military would soon resume its mission in Rafah.
We are taking a deep breath and then we go on the officer said.
During the day, as Israeli troops eased their grip on sections of the camp, residents buried their dead and surveyed devastated streets, homes and farmland.
Sharon met Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman to discuss security arrangements following a withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza. The pullout plan was rejected by Sharon's Likud Party earlier this month, but Sharon said he would seek Cabinet approval next week for a revised proposal envisioning a gradual Gaza pullout.
In a separate meeting with Suleiman in the Former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan, who still wields considerable influence, said Palestinians would welcome an Israeli withdrawal.
I think the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza represents an opportunity and maybe it represents the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank
he said.
Sharon is not assured of majority Cabinet support for his revised proposal.
Israeli troops first withdrew yesterday from Rafah's Tel Sultan neighborhood, the first area targeted in its operation. Palestinian officials said eight homes were demolished and dozens more were damaged during the past week in the neighborhood, home to 25,000 Palestinians.
Since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been displaced by demolitions along an Israeli military buffer zone between Egypt and the refugee camp, the United Nations said.
Yesterday, residents surveyed streets flooded with sewage and lined with damaged homes and crushed cars. Scores of homeless Palestinians were sheltered at a school.
The world should understand that Palestinians in Rafah are looking for just two things: freedom and houses
not for food and not for violence
said Iyad Abu Teuor, 21, whose house 300 yards from the Egyptian border was demolished Friday.
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