http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050823-0757-israel-palestinians.html<snip>
"Israeli soldiers cleared two militant strongholds Tuesday without major violence, completing the country's historic evacuation of 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank – the first time Israel has abandoned Jewish communities in lands the Palestinians claim for their future state.
About 10,000 troops – armed with riot gear, circular saws, water hoses and wirecutters – were mobilized to overwhelm the last stand against the pullout in the West Bank settlements of Sanur and Homesh.
The resistance was staged largely by 1,600 Israelis who didn't even live there – some of them youths known for their extremism and rejection of the Israeli government's authority.
But security officials' fears of armed violence didn't materialize, and the military declared the evacuation of the two settlements over just nine hours after troops stormed them.
Residents of the other two West Bank settlements slated for removal, Ganim and Kadim, had already left on their own. Military bulldozers Tuesday knocked down all the structures in Kadim, and were razing buildings in Ganim – the first demolitions in a West Bank settlement.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel's withdrawal from all 21 Gaza Strip outposts and four isolated communities in the northern West Bank will improve Israel's security by reducing friction with the Palestinians, and solidify Israel's grip on main West Bank settlement blocs, where most of its 240,000 settlers live."
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