2005 Sharon and Abbas announced a ceasefire (with Abbas persuading militant factions to observe an informal calm at least until the end of 2005). Violence subsides. Israel completed an evacuation of 15,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza - after 38 years of occupation - but Palestinian rocket salvoes from Gaza followed, prompting renewed Israeli air strikes. Sharon left Likud and formed Kadima, a new party that was intended to give him a freer hand to deal with the Palestinians.
Pictured, settlers and activists attempt to fend off a shipping container carrying police at the West Bank settlement of Sanur, one of the four in the territory alongside the 21 in Gaza marked for dismantlement
Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Europe
The Guardian
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