Israel declares end to Gaza rule

Israel declared an end to its military rule in Gaza on Sunday, clearing the way to complete its pullout and turn the territory over to the Palestinians today after 38 years of occupation.

Their bases dismantled and the Jewish settlements they guarded in ruins, several thousand remaining troops moved quickly into the final stages of a withdrawal that will leave the Palestinians with a volatile testing ground for statehood.

But like most twists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the impending pullout was marred by dispute and recriminations.

The last obstacle to the army's exit was cleared when Israel's Cabinet decided not to level 19 settlement synagogues, unlike settlers' homes demolished in last month's evacuation of the 21 enclaves, and leave their fate up to the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of trying to saddle it with the blame internationally if the Jewish houses of worship were defaced by Palestinian crowds targeting hated symbols of occupation of the tiny coastal territory.

But the Cabinet, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself, reversed an earlier decision to raze the synagogues after rabbis said destroying them would be a greater sin than possible desecration by Palestinians.

"The Cabinet has unanimously approved ... the formal cancellation of the military government in Gaza," Sharon's office said in a tersely worded statement.

But Palestinian Cabinet ember Mohammed Dahlan said Israel was "deluding itself" if it thought it was totally ending its occupation of Gaza while continuing to control the tiny territory's border crossings, air space and territorial waters.

Palestinians were watching the end of Israel's military presence, marking the first removal of settlements on land they want for a state, with a mixture of joy and skepticism.

They fear Sharon is trading the territory, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, for a permanent hold on larger areas of the occupied West Bank where 245,000 settlers live isolated from 2.4 million Palestinians.

In a sign of tensions, the departing army called off a Gaza handover ceremony on Sunday after Palestinians said they would boycott it in anger over Israel's failure to agree on allowing freedom of movement to and from the strip.

Sharon stoked Palestinian anger when he reiterated in a Washington Post newspaper interview that despite U.S. objections, Israel would keep building in large West Bank settlement blocs it intends to keep under any future peace deal.

Sharon's rightist opponents call the Gaza pullout a betrayal of Jewish claims on biblical land and a reward for a Palestinian uprising. But U.S.-led mediators see it as a possible catalyst for renewed peacemaking after five years of violence.

Palestinians watching impatiently:

Looking on impatiently from nearby hilltops, Gazans prepared to take to the streets in celebration.

Many were expected to try to swarm into the settlements' ruins despite the Palestinian Authority's orders to stay out. "We are full of happiness," said Sami Abu-akar, 35. "When the Israelis leave, we will rush in."

The Palestinian Authority's official festivities will have to compete with parades by militants claiming victory over the Jewish state.

"All security forces have been put on high alert and are fully prepared to implement the decision of their command to deploy in every place to be vacated by Israel," Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said.

Armed factions are largely observing an eight-month-old truce Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas engineered with Israel, but there are fears it could break down after the pullout.

Palestinians say occupation of Gaza will not truly be over unless Israel relinquishes control of border crossings with Egypt, allows unimpeded travel to and from the strip and lets them operate air and sea ports, issues still under discussion.

On the southern Gaza frontier, Egypt began deploying under a deal with Israel the first contingents of the 750 border guards who will replace Israeli troops at the flashpoint Philadelphi corridor, where militants have built weapons-smuggling tunnels.

Israel's Cabinet on Sunday gave final approval for removal of forces from the border zone.

Troops in Gaza were waiting in and near their armored vehicles for the order to roll into Israel, a pullout security sources said could be completed in 12 hours.

The decision to leave the synagogues intact, which speeds the evacuation, heeds religious sensitivities and could help Sharon face down a rightist revolt within his Likud party seeking to topple him as chairman before the next election.

Polls show most Israelis backed removal of Gaza's 8,500 settlers, many of whom believed God had bequeathed the land to the Jewish people.