Palestinians start to sweep up, rebuild after Israel withdraws

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinians in West Bank cities began to clean up and rebuild Sunday, the first day in three weeks without an armed Israeli presence on the streets.

Within hours of Israel's pullout from Nablus, people poured into the streets. Trucks restocked the produce markets, shopkeepers washed down the sidewalks outside their doors, and cars returned to the streets, weaving around the rubble. In some neighborhoods, bulldozers shoveled away debris to allow cars to pass.

It was the first time in weeks that fresh vegetables could replace canned goods and dry beans.

People moved warily to avoid booby traps set by Palestinian fighters in defense against the Israeli incursion, or fearing that the Israelis had left behind their own bombs.

Khaled Sabry, 35, stood outside one building to stop people from going in.

"What we are doing right now is trying to persuade civilians and shop owners not to enter the building before experts come and check that it's empty of booby traps. Nobody knows how far these people can go in harming Palestinians," he said.

The Nablus municipality said 80 percent of its low-tension electricity was knocked out and 200 electrical polls were toppled, 70 percent of its water network was damaged, up to 70 percent of the sewage system was destroyed. and more than half the roads were torn up.

Anan Jarwan, 32, removing the damaged door of his Nablus clothing shop, said the destruction of his business depressed him, but he was determined to rebuild.

"No, I can't leave here, it's my homeland and I will not leave."

Tayseer Al-Juba, 30, who owns a stationary store in Ramallah, said he felt lucky to be alive. "Now we need years and years to rebuild Ramallah," he said. But the bitterness is deep. "We have rivers of blood running between us."

Throughout the West Bank, tank treads have chewed up roads, passing armor has shaved the edges off buildings on street corners, holes gape in some walls, lamp posts are down and cars are crumpled like tin cans. Streets are cluttered with concrete blocks, old tires, and garbage from overturned and crushed rubbish bins.

Israel moved into the cities March 29 on a sweep against Palestinians responsible for more than 50 suicide bombings and hundreds of other attacks against Israel since the "intefadeh," or uprising against the Israeli occupation, began 18 months ago.

Israeli armor rumbled out of Nablus and most of Ramallah, the two largest towns in the northern West Bank, during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, after evacuating Jenin on Friday.

But they remained fully deployed in Bethlehem, where some 200 Palestinian gunmen have sought sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity, defying Israeli orders to surrender.

"We can't leave the Bethlehem area until this issue is solved because the presence of our troops is what keeps up the pressure on those in the church," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Israeli tanks also continued to surround the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, insisting that he hand over five wanted men.