Spring Break
Gaza truce takes hold; Israeli pullout begins
Associated Press
Issue date: 1/16/09 Section: News
|
Israeli tanks rolled out of Gaza Sunday, and infantry soldiers walked across the border to Israel, their guns and packs slung over their shoulders. The withdrawal left wide scenes of destruction in its wake, with buildings flattened, and dozens of bodies recovered from the rubble.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would leave Gaza quickly if the cease-fire holds.
"We didn't set out to conquer Gaza, we didn't set out to control Gaza, we don't want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as fast as possible," Olmert said at a dinner with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Spain.
He also expressed sorrow over the deaths of civilians in Gaza, calling them "hostages of the Hamas murders" and vowed to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the territory.
Militant rockets peppered southern Israel ahead of the Palestinian truce offer, threatening to re-ignite three weeks of violence that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians - more than half of them civilians, Gaza officials said - and turned the streets of Hamas-ruled Gaza into battlegrounds.
In Gaza, Palestinians loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and ventured out to see what was left of their homes after Israel's punishing air and ground assault. Bulldozers shoved aside rubble in Gaza City to clear a path for cars. Medical workers sifting through mounds of concrete said they recovered 100 bodies amid the debris.
Be the first to comment on this story