Israeli army reported to be withdrawing from key Rafah area

1.00pm

GAZA - Israeli forces began withdrawing early on Monday from a key neighbourhood in southern Gaza's Rafah district, an Israeli newspaper reported.

The Y-Net internet site of the Yedioth Ahronoth daily said troops started moving out of the Tel Sultan neighbourhood which they had occupied since last Tuesday.

Palestinian witnesses also reported seeing at least several tanks moving out of the area, and headed toward the coastline settlement of Rafiah Yam. Some troops had also abandoned positions in some Tel Sultan homes, witnesses said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment, nor was it clear whether the troops would also pull out of a second area, known as the Brazil camp, which they also occupied during the raid.

News of the pullout came as the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, was expected to hold talks later on Monday with Palestinian leaders about an Israeli plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced on Sunday night he would present such a plan to his cabinet on May 30 for an expected vote to approve a withdrawal in four stages of the 21 Israeli enclaves in Gaza.

Israeli troops raided the Rafah area on Gaza's southern border with Egypt on May 18 in what has been its largest incursion in Gaza in years, on a search-and-destroy mission for tunnels used to smuggle in weapons to Gaza.

The raid was launched after 13 soldiers were killed in a string of ambushes in Gaza earlier this month and the shooting deaths of an Israeli woman and her four daughters.

At least 42 Palestinians have died in the raid, and hundreds have been left homeless as tanks and bulldozers have flattened or badly damaged buildings while confronting militants.

- REUTERS