August 12

A balloon made in the colors of the Palestinian flag and bearing the portraits of the late Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Authority President Mahmmoud Abbas on it is carried by youths in the seafront of Gaza City as preparations to celebrate the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip begin Friday Aug. 12, 2005. Israel will dismantle 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip together with four more in the West Bank beginning Aug. 17.(AP Photo/Adel Hana)