Israel clears 2 West Bank settlements

The Israeli flag was set alight by protestors holed up in the settlements of Sanur and Homesh to express their disgust at their one-time champion Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who is now overseeing the first ever pullout of Israeli citizens from the West Bank after 38 years of occupation.

While the northern West Bank evacuations represent only a tiny fraction of the 120 settlements that dot the territory captured by Israel in 1967, the unprecedented operation has raised international hopes of a genuine breakthrough in the moribund peace process.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas telephoned Sharon to congratulate him on the completion of the Gaza pullout and to express hopes for the opening of a new chapter in relations after five years of bloodshed.

Troops in the West Bank, bracing for violent confrontrations, were confronted by screaming protestors who set burning barricades and pelted them with rotten eggs and ketchup.

"You should be ashamed," one sobbing woman shrieked at a group of police in Sanur. "You've destroyed our lives but we will return here."

Troops used metal-cutters to break into a half-built synagogue in Sanur where dozens of protestors had taken refuge behind metal bars and razor wire and carried them out one-by-one after attempts at mediation failed.

The soldiers also sliced their way through the doors of a former British fortress in the settlement where they removed dozens of people inside.

A few diehards remained on the fortress's rooftop as a crane loomed over the top in apparent readiness to force the hardliners off.