Israeli Forces Begin Withdrawal from Lebanese Border Village.

By VOA News

Israeli troops are withdrawing from most of a divided village on the Lebanese border Tuesday. In a statement, the commander of United Nations' peacekeepers in Lebanon said Israeli troops were to pull out from most of by early Tuesday evening local time.

When completed,

the pullout would put all Israeli forces behind an internationally demarcated truce line for the first time since the end of a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbullah terrorists in August. A U.N. Security Council resolution requires a complete Israeli pullout from Lebanon, as international peacekeepers deploy in the country.

In a separate development, U.N. examiners say initial findings show no evidence that Israel used toxic ammunition known as depleted uranium shells against Hizbullah. Israel had denied a British news report alleging that it used the radioactive weaponry on Hizbullah. Experts said such munitions contaminate land and cause grave illness among users, the armies they target, and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.

And in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces ended a military operation that left more than 50 Palestinians dead. The move came as Palestinian political factions continue efforts to reach agreement on a unity government.

After a week of the heaviest fighting in the Gaza Strip since Israel disengaged from the territory, last year, Israeli troops pulled out of Beit Hanoun. Since last week, the town of about 30,000 people has been the scene of continuous battles between armored Israeli units, backed by combat aircraft, and Palestinian terrorists.

Much of the town was destroyed in the fighting. Israeli military officials said they largely achieved their objective, which was to reduce the capability of Palestinian terrorists to fire homemade Kassam rockets at southern Israel. Major Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defense Forces, said "The object of the operation in Beit Hanoun was to minimize - not to stop by 100 percent, because we cannot guarantee 100 percent - but to minimize the infrastructure that has to do with the Kassam launching."

Leibovich said Israeli forces killed dozens of alleged terrorists and arrested dozens of others. She said they also uncovered large amounts of weaponry, including rocket launchers and anti-tank missile launchers.

Palestinian leaders harshly criticized the Israeli operation in Beit Hanoun and appealed, unsuccessfully, to the United Nations Security Council to intervene. U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan voiced his concerns and urged Israel to exercise restraint. Several Israeli politicians also said they were worried about Israeli troops becoming bogged down in Gaza.

Even as they pulled out of Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces were involved in clashes with Palestinian terrorists, elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces reentered Gaza in late June, after Palestinian militants abducted an Israeli soldier from a Gaza border post.