Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (C) attends a Friday prayer in Gaza city August 19, 2005.

GAZA, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Friday hailed the ongoing Israeli pullout as the "fruit of Palestinian sacrifice", promising the people a better future.

    Abbas made the remarks while addressing a cheering crowd of his supporters at the defunct Gaza International Airport, the first public speech since the start of Israeli evacuation on Aug. 15.

    Hailing the days of Israeli pullout as "historic days of joy",Abbas urged the nation that "we want on this occasion to pay homage to our martyrs, to our prisoners, to our wounded and all those among our people who have made sacrifices."

    The Palestinian leader stressed the need to improve quality of life in the Palestinian territories devastated by years of conflictand poverty, promising his people jobs, freedom of movement and newhomes after Israel's Gaza pullout.

    "This airport will not stay idle. It will not stay out of work.Today we are visitors, tomorrow we will be travellers and God willing all the borders will reopen and our country will be open to all visitors," he added.

    Meanwhile, Abbas called the Palestinians to bolster the case for independence by refraining from violence, saying "the most important thing is how to build our country so that it will become a model of civilization for the rest of the world.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas gestures as he addresses a crowd during a celebration for Israel's Gaza withdrawal, at the Gaza international airport outside Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 19, 2005.

    "Israel formally began the pullout operation on Monday morning according to the disengagement plan put forward by Sharon at the end of 2003, which calls for removing all 21 Gaza settlements and four of about 120 in the West Bank.

    The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced Thursday night that it has evacuated 16 of all the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip,including the biggest settlements of Kfar Darom and Neveh Dekalim,after two days of forcible evacuation.

    Israel originally planned to finish all evacuations in about one month and to demolish settlement houses in the following month. Itwill hand over a whole Gaza to Palestinian National Authority afterwards.

    The mission is expected to be completed ahead of schedule due to the quicker evacuation in the past days. Enditem