Just before Condoleezza Rice is due to visit, Israel has pulled back its troops from occupied Gaza after its illegal attacks left over 100 dead in 6 days. An IDF spokesperson told media sources that “almost all our forces have already returned to Israel.” However, Israel does not intend to cease military operations against the occupied territory, threatening to intensify its ground and air campaign. PM Olmert told a parliamentary panel: “We are in the midst of a combat action. What happened in recent days was not a one-time event.”

As Gazans mourned the dead, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops erupted on Sunday in the Shufat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, Hebron, and Belin as well as other areas across the West Bank.

More than 40 Palestinians were injured, three of them seriously, as the demonstrators clashed with Israeli troops.

Hundreds of West Bank residents holding Hamas and Fatah flags staged rallies and appealed for national unity in an atmosphere that is being compared to the situation at the start of the second intifada in 2000.

In Lebanon, up to 1,000 people waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags rallied near the Israeli border against the continuing attacks on Gaza.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president in the West Bank, had suspended all contact with Israel over its assault that left at least 116 Palestinians dead in Gaza, including 22 children and 12 women. Israel applied its collective punishment on Gaza from the air, land, and sea, with even naval ships shelling the territory. The EU, UN, and the Pope joined Abbas on Sunday in demanding an immediate halt to the violence. Abbas designated Sunday as a day of mourning and ordered “the suspension of negotiations … until [Israeli] aggression is stopped.”

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