Israel Army Pulls out of Gaza Strip, Stays in Fighting Trim

World | January 21, 2009, Wednesday // 00:00
Bulgaria Israel Army Pulls out of Gaza Strip, Stays in Fighting Trim: Israel Army Pulls out of Gaza Strip, Stays in Fighting Trim An Israeli tank is making its way from Gaza back into Israel as Israeli troops retreated from the enclave. Photo by BGNES

Israel completed Wednesday before dawn the withdrawal of its troops from the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported citing an Israeli military spokesman.

Despite the pull-out, however, the Israeli forces will remain deployed all around Gaza's border in fighting trim.

Israel's withdrawal was completed three days after its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza in a televised address on January 17 declaring the offensive had achieved its goals but disrupting the infrastructure of Hamas.

A day later Hamas and other Islamist groups active in Gaza accepted the ceasefire but demanded that the Israeli ground forces retreat within a weak for it to hold.

Israel started air strikes on the Gaza Strip on December 27 in response to the firing of rockets into its territory. Later it continued with artillery barrage and a ground operation.

More than 1 300 Palestinians have been reported killed in the 22-day conflict, a third of them children. Isreal lost ten soldiers and three civilians.

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