Israeli soldiers on Saturday left three Palestinian schools in the West Bank town of Al Khalil that they had used for four years as posts to observe militants. The army said it left the buildings to "ease restrictions on residents" and after reassessing the security situation. Troops set up an observation post 200 meters from one of the schools, but said Palestinians will be allowed to reach and enter all of them freely.
Palestinians walked across broken glass from smashed windows and pushed aside shattered doors as they assessed the damage to the schools, once frequented by more than 2,000 students.
Officials plan to rebuild and open them in a month.
Troops seized the schools, in a Palestinian-controlled area overlooking a Jewish settlement, after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000. Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared a truce in February, although violence has flared in recent weeks.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority control different parts of Al Khalil, where about 500 heavily guarded Jewish settlers live among 120,000 Palestinians. It has often been the scene of deadly clashes.
MILITANTS DETAINED: Israeli troops detained 14 Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday in the West Bank hours after gunmen killed a Jewish settler, as a fragile Israeli-Palestinian truce eroded further.
Israel has in the last few days detained 63 suspected Islamic Jihad gunmen in the West Bank and revived a policy of assassinating the group's leaders, while a militant shot dead another Jewish settler on Monday.