PNA confirms Israeli army's sudden evacuation of four W. Bank settlements

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Interior Ministry confirmed Saturday afternoon that Israeli army has begun a sudden withdrawal from four Jewish settlements near the town of Jenin in northern West Bank.

The ministry said in a statement sent to reporters that the Israeli army began to withdraw its forces from the settlements of Homesh, Ganim, Kadim and Sanour.

About 2,000 Palestinian police officers were waiting to redeploy into and around the four settlements, said the statement,adding that hundreds of people entered Homesh settlement for the first time.

The statement added that the Israeli army is expected to finalize the withdrawal from the four settlements by Saturday evening, after which the settlements would be under the Palestinian security control.

However, Israel said that the whole area of the northern West Bank, including the city of Jenin and the villages surrounding the city would not be under full Palestinian control, but under Israeli security control.

The Israeli army had earlier evacuated all settlers living in the four settlements, and then immediately started demolishing the houses inside the settlements.

Right after the withdrawal is finalized later on Saturday, hundreds of Palestinian national security officers would take over and deploy into and around the four settlements, said security sources.

The withdrawal from the four northern West Bank settlements is part of an Israeli unilateral disengagement plan, under which the Israeli army had withdrawn all its forces from the Gaza Strip on Monday, after they had evacuated 8,000 settlers and destroyed the houses in the strip's all 21 Jewish settlements.

Source:Xinhua