UNITED NATIONS – As Israel completed the complex and sensitive task of removing Jewish citizens from Gaza and West Bank settlements, officials yesterday said that further progress depends largely on the Palestinian Arabs. Israeli diplomats said the United Nations will not be involved in verifying the withdrawal, and President Bush vowed to help the “people of Gaza.”

“The first stage of the separation plan ended,but is not complete,”the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, said. Practically all Jewish citizens were evacuated from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank, General Halutz said in a final press briefing yester day. The operation lasted less than a week. The army has yet to help the Gaza evacuees remove the remainder of their belongings and raze their former homes. General Halutz said this process will last about 20 days.

General Halutz spoke after two small West Bank settlements, Sanur and Homesh, were evacuated yesterday without significant violence. About 15,000 settlers and their supporters were evacuated from Gaza and the Shomron region of the West Bank since the beginning of the joint police-army operation last Monday, the general said. “Undoubtedly, the act of civilian evacuation was carried out faster than expected,” he said. Success was made possible by good preparation by the troops, their commanders, and the related civilian institutions, he said, also praising the behavior of the settlers and their leaders.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, told The New York Sun that Jerusalem will oppose any U.N. Security Council resolution drawn up to verify the completion of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Arab countries have demanded that Israel withdraw from all of the territories that it has controlled since the 1967 war. Secretary-General Annan has indicated that the United Nations has the expertise to verify the Gaza withdrawal.

Noting that Mr. Annan verified the demarcation of the Lebanese-Israeli border known as the “blue line”after Israel left Lebanon in 2000, and that the secretary-general is currently working to verify Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon, a U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, told the Sun yesterday that Turtle Bay “has the expertise and experience to verify a withdrawal.” He stressed, however, that Mr. Annan will only apply this expertise to Gaza “if asked to do so.”

Today the Security Council is expected to issue a nonbinding “press statement” regarding the completion of the civilian evacuation, but beyond that, there should be no U.N. involvement, Mr. Gillerman said. Israelis are concerned that some council members will demand further evacuation, including in the disputed areas of the West Bank, and then will require U.N. verification for that as well.”The U.N. has no role in the separation plan, and we will oppose any such role,” Mr. Gillerman said.

When Mr. Sharon arrives in New York in mid-September, he is expected to become “the real superstar” of the Turtle Bay summit attended by a large number of heads of state, Mr. Gillerman said, adding that the Israeli U.N. mission is already “flooded” with requests from leaders who hope to make an appointment with Mr. Sharon.

Mr. Gillerman is expected to have a breakfast meeting today with the U.N. Development Program administrator, Kemal Dervis, to discuss the use of funds by the agency’s Gaza office for Palestinian Arab political propaganda. Mr. Gillerman said that Mr. Dervis has already conveyed his disapproval. But this was not the first time the agency was involved in such action: In January, the Sun reported that the UNDP continued to transfer funds to a West Bank charity affiliated with the terrorist organization Hamas even after being alerted to the Hamas link by the Israeli army.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gideon Meir, told the Associated Press, “We disengaged the people from the land in the Gaza Strip and the northern part of the West Bank. Now it’s the Palestinians’ turn to disengage themselves from violence and terror.”

President Bush, who spoke with reporters in Idaho, agreed. “In order for this process to go forward there must be confidence,” he said. “Confidence that the Palestinian people will have in their own government to perform, confidence with the Israelis that they’ll see a peaceful state emerging.”

Praising Mr. Sharon “for having made a very tough decision,” Mr. Bush said that the Israeli move “has really changed the dynamics on the ground, and has really provided hope for the Palestinian people.” The president called on world powers to support Gaza’s economy in order to turn the area into a democracy.

Despite dire predictions of violence in the two settlements that were evacuated yesterday, particularly at Sanur, where hard-line, anti-government protesters traveled to make their final stand, the day-long operation was considered a success. The only significant violent event occurred when a female soldier was stabbed by a female assailant. The soldier was quickly taken to a hospital, where she was treated for minor wounds.

In scenes reminiscent of last week’s confrontation at Gaza’s Kfar Darom, dozens of demonstrators took over the roof of a fort built by the British and tried to prevent police and army troops from climbing up to evacuate them. But negotiations that had been conducted earlier between troop commanders and settler leaders proved fruitful, and after minor skirmishes that lasted for several hours, the fort was emptied.