Israel quits Gaza town, Palestinians bury dead

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip, Nov 7 (Reuters) Israeli forces pulled out of a battered northern Gaza town today after one of their biggest operations in the Palestinian territory in a year, leaving residents to bury their dead.

''This is the worst raid we have ever witnessed,'' said Khalil Yazji, a 45-year-old resident and police officer. ''The Israeli army has brought destruction into every single street and nearly into every single house. This is the tsunami of Beit Hanoun.'' Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed four gunmen and a civilian, militant groups and hospital officials said.

Officials said Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would resume talks today on a unity government of professional experts that Palestinians hope can lead to a resumption of direct international aid to the Palestinian Authority.

After watching Israeli armour pull out, Palestinians poured into the streets of Beit Hanoun, a town of 30,000 in an area that has been a staging ground for rocket attacks against southern Israel.

Stepping around puddles of sewage, some residents looked shocked at the extent of damage to buildings, roads, water pipes and electricity poles.

Several homes were demolished and dozens partially damaged during the fighting, 14 months after Israel completed a withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip following 38 years of occupation.

Israeli troops killed 52 people, more than half of them militants, during a week-long raid that has centred on the town, Palestinian medical officials said. One soldier has been killed.

Beit Hanoun residents planned funerals later in the day for at least 10 people who could not be buried while fighting raged.

Announcing an end to ''Operation Autumn Clouds'', the army said it found large amounts of weaponry, including rocket launchers and anti-tank missile launchers, in Beit Hanoun.

Despite the assault, which some Israeli political commentators said was partially aimed at restoring deterrence power Israel lost in an inconclusive Lebanon war in July/August, militants have continued to launch rockets across the frontier.

The pullout from the town had been widely expected in Israel ahead of talks Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hold at the White House with US President George W Bush on November. 13.

Both have spoken often of easing humanitarian conditions for Palestinians in the impoverished Gaza Strip while pledging to boycott the Hamas-led government until it recognised Israel, renounced violence and accepted existing interim peace accords.

UNITY GOVERNMENT Hamas has struggled to govern under Western sanctions that have deepened economic hardship in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The Islamist movement took office in March after beating President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in elections.

Hamas says it will never recognise Israel or join a government that did, making it unclear how a unity administration could meet international conditions for ending sanctions.

An Abbas aide said the president had rejected Haniyeh's proposed candidate to succeed him as prime minister.

''Abbas has given Haniyeh until tonight to hand him the names of three candidates for prime minister. Then he will choose one of the three,'' a senior Palestinian official said. ''Abbas ... believes Hamas should not try to impose its candidate on him.'' REUTERS PB PM1451