Israeli forces began pulling back from Jericho today, a move that may boost Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in his bid to commit militants to a ceasefire so he can talk peace with Israel.
The withdrawal, delayed for weeks by disputes over its scope, marked the launch of a planned handover of five cities in the occupied West Bank to Palestinian control agreed at a February 8th summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians flashed V-for-victory signs and sat down to festive picnics in Jericho as cranes loaded concrete blocks onto Israeli trucks at the city's main entrance and the two sides' officers met to wrap up the staggered transfer.
Israeli officers said earlier Jericho would be given to "full Palestinian security control" but soldiers would remain near an intersection on the nearby Jordan Valley highway.
Mr Sharon pledged to move troops away in phases from four other West Bank cities - Tulkarm, Ramallah, Qalqilya and Bethlehem - in exchange for Abbas's confidence-building pledge to ensure militants mounted no further attacks from those areas.
The desert city, whose region has a Palestinian population of around 40,000, has been largely calm throughout most of a Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000.
Palestinians want the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Arab East Jerusalem for the capital of a future state under a US-devised peace "road map".
Mr Sharon has announced plans to evacuate Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza later this year.
But he has vowed to keep larger settlements in the West Bank and all of Jerusalem and is building a barrier around them.