Thousands of Palestinians rallied in Gaza Thursday to celebrate the imminent Israeli withdrawal from the territory as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government sought to cement its presence in the occupied West Bank.
Prime minister Ahmed Qorei told a crowd of around 10,000 people gathered outside the local headquarters of the legislative council that the withdrawal from Gaza would be the first step towards the creation of a Palestinian state including the whole of the West Bank with east Jerusalem as its capital.
But as Qorei spoke of his vision of independence, Israel's housing ministry confirmed that it had issued tenders for scores of new houses in the West Bank in direct contravention of a US-backed peace plan which targets the creation of a Palestinian state.
"This Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank is a first step on our journey to Jerusalem and the whole of the West Bank," said the prime minister.
"There is no way that this Israeli move can be a final move. It must be the first step."
Banners and placards displayed by the crowds sought to portray the Israeli departure as a victory for the Palestinian people.
"The Palestinian people liberated this land", the "Palestinian people are building the state", read banners carried by people taking part in the demonstration which was organised by the governing Fatah faction.
But while the Palestinians have welcomed the prospect of withdrawals from any part of the occupied territories, they are also wary that Sharon wants to use the pullout from Gaza to enable him to further entrench Israel's presence in the West Bank.
Kamal Ashrafi, the head of a committee specially formed to celebrate the pullout from Gaza, said it was essential that the international community keep up pressure for further withdrawals.
"We are saying to the world: 'Gaza is the first step to the liberation of all of our land'," he told the rally.
"We all remember that the Israelis used to say that Netzarim (an isolated Gaza settlement) is like Tel Aviv but now the Israelis are not only withdrawing from Netzarim but another 20 settlements in Gaza."
The 21 Gaza settlements along with four small Israeli enclaves in the northern West Bank are due to be dismantled in an operation starting August 17.
An aide to Sharon confirmed Thursday that the cabinet would vote this weekend to give its final approval for the evacuation of the first batch of three settlements, which should be a mere formality.
Although he signed up to the US-backed roadmap peace plan which prohibits further settlement activity, Sharon has made no secret of his desire to entrench Israel's hold over the West Bank by leaving Gaza voluntarily.
He is particularly keen to cement control around Jerusalem, the city which he regards as the undisputed and undivided capital of the Jewish state but where the Palestinians also want to establish their future capital.
An illustration of that strategy came with an announcement by the housing ministry that it had issued tenders to build 72 new houses at the settlement of Beitar Ilit just to the south of Jerusalem.
"We have issued appeals for 72 housing units in Beitar Ilit," Kobi Bleich said, adding that the project had been approved last year.
Israeli police meanwhile said that around 150 right-wing activists were arrested overnight after infiltrating one of the doomed settlements in the northern Gaza Strip.
Police made the arrests during house to house searches in Nissanit, bussing detainees back inside Israel in the early hours.
Around 40 other hardline opponents of the pullout plan were also arrested as they tried to sneak into the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the south of the territory around the Kissufim border crossing, police said.
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