NETZARIM SETTLEMENT (Gaza Strip), Aug 22: The last remaining Jewish settlers were pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel brought down the curtain on its 38-year occupation of the Palestinian territory.

“All the Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip have been evacuated,” national police spokesman Avi Zelba said at the end of an operation which began on Wednesday and had initially been expected to take some three weeks.

While bulldozers were demolishing empty settler homes in other parts of Gaza, thousands of soldiers were taking up position around two hardline settlements in the West Bank for the next phase of the historic operation to withdraw from land that should form part of a future Palestinian state. The Israeli army plans to begin the operation on Tuesday.

Residents of the last remaining settlement in Gaza, Netzarim, were driven out for the final time after the local rabbi brought out the sacred Torah scrolls at the end of a farewell ceremony in the synagogue that left settlers and soldiers alike in tears.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas claimed the evacuation was a reward for the martyrs of the five-year uprising, which has left nearly 4,000 Palestinians dead.

The residents of Netzarim, arguably the most hardline of all the 21 Jewish communities in Gaza, remained defiant to the last.

Even as troops arrived, some were working on a half-built house, hauling concrete blocks and cement.

While the evacuation passed off peacefully, residents made their feelings clear about the operation and its architect, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The premier, who declared three years ago that Netzarim was as integral a part of Israel as Tel Aviv, has become the settlers’ number one enemy.

Some youngsters scrawled graffiti on a water tank declaring: “Yigal Amir, where are you?” — a reference to the killer of the late premier Yitzhak Rabin.

Mr Sharon’s disengagement plan has raised international hopes of a genuine revival of the moribund Middle East peace process.

US President George Bush said the withdrawal was ‘a courageous and painful step’ that would help revive peace hopes.

Mr Abbas has been a frequent critic of the armed uprising, but he said the pullout was a vindication for Palestinian victims.

“The wounds that you have suffered are your medals and the departure of the last settler today is your reward,” he told Palestinians disabled during the intifada. “It is thanks to the martyrs, prisoners and you.”

The militant Palestinian group Hamas held a celebratory meeting in the largest West Bank city of Nablus, torching models of settlements.

Netzarim was particularly detested by Palestinians who were subjected to endless road closures so settlers could move around with army protection.

Soldiers who have been protecting Netzarim from Palestinians living in nearby Gaza City were invited to the farewell at the synagogue and could be seen, armed with M-16 rifles, mingling with residents.

Efrath Raza, on one of the first buses to leave, vowed to return one day.

“We hope to come back to live here because this is our country, our soldiers died here,” she said. “It’s heart-breaking.”

Others were not going so willingly. In one house, children chanted: “Jews Don’t Expel Jews”, a cry that has become common during the evacuations.

WEST BANK: With the operation in Gaza ending, attention is now focusing on two hardline settlements in the northern West Bank.