Israel troops have pulled out of Gaza town

GAZA, Nov 7: Israeli forces pulled out of a northern Gaza town overnight after one of their biggest operations in the Palestinian coastal strip in a year, the army said today.

''Soldiers have left Beit Hanoun,'' said an army spokeswoman, adding forces were still in other parts of northern Gaza.

Residents confirmed Israeli forces had left Beit Hanoun.

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

The offensive, one of the biggest since the army and Jewish settlers withdrew from Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation, was designed to curb militant rocket fire. But militants have still launched numerous makeshift missiles.

On the Palestinian political front, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh held talks late yesterday that could lead to the formation of a unity government, potentially easing sanctions against the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Abbas, head of the once-dominant Fatah faction and Haniyeh, a leader of the Hamas militant group which won Palestinian elections in January, met in Gaza City for about two hours.

Officials said the two men would resume talks today.

Hamas has struggled to govern under a Western embargo imposed over its refusal to recognise Israel.

Abbas and Haniyeh have been involved in on-again, off-again negotiations for the past few months to try and forge a deal on a coalition government uniting their rival movements.

The standoff between Hamas and Fatah has triggered bloodshed between gunmen from the two factions, raising fears of civil war.

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

REUTERS