A spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel decided to leave a section of the northern Gaza Strip it had taken hours earlier on Tuesday long before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s strong criticism of the Israeli action. The spokesman also criticized the Israeli commander in Gaza for saying that Israel planned to remain in Gaza “for as long as it takes days, weeks, months.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.