The US welcomed Israel's withdrawal from the area of the Gaza Strip that it had reoccupied overnight, but warned the Jewish state not to "overreact" to Palestinian attacks, a senior state department official said.
"We're glad to see that they're pulling out of Gaza," an official said, adding "at the same time, we continue to be concerned that Israel not overreact to the kind of provocations we have seen recently from Hezbollah and the Palestinian side," he said. "The management of these issues needs to lead us toward peace and not risk further inflaming the atmosphere," he said.
The official added that Israel had informed Washington of the withdrawal while the pull-out was underway. He spoke after Palestinian security officials said that the Israeli army had completed its withdrawal from autonomous Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip's Beit Hanun sector.
Israeli public radio had earlier reported that the army had almost completed its withdrawal on orders of premier Ariel Sharon and defence minister Binyamin ben Eliezer. Israeli troops had entered the area overnight in response to Palestinian mortar attacks, drawing a unusually strong response from its chief ally, the US, which called the move "excessive and disproportionate." Bureau Report