JERUSALEM, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a televised speech Monday evening that the unilateral pullout from Gaza and part of West Bank is Israel's answer to the current reality.

    Israeli army began formal implementation of the disengagement plan Monday morning. According to the plan, which put forward by Sharon at the end of 2003, Israel will remove all 21 Gaza settlements and four of about 120 in the West Bank.

    In the televised speech, Sharon spoke for some four minutes about the disengagement and the need to maintain national unity. He said the dispute over the disengagement has caused deep scars in Israeli society, but Israel could not expect to hold on to Gaza forever.

    The evacuation of settlers from Gaza was vital despite the pain it caused, Sharon told the nation, adding the pullout is essential for Israel's future despite it is painful both for the nation and for himself.

    "We cannot hold onto Gaza forever, more than a million Palestinians live there...crowded in refugee camps, poverty and hotbeds of hatred with no hope on the horizon," said Sharon.

    The grim-looking prime minister also called the Palestinian sided to clamp down on militants, saying it is now up to the Palestinians to clamp down on militants and stop violence.

    "To an outstretched hand we will respond with an olive branch,"he said, vowing to make the "harshest response ever" to any attack by Palestinian militants after the pullout. Enditem