Abdullah's tone was sharply suspicious of Israel. He underlined fears that if Israel fails to leave the West Bank, Jordan may have to take in tens of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps throughout Lebanon and Syria.

That would disturb the demographic balance in Jordan, which already is the largest Arab host of 1.8 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants displaced in two wars with Israel since 1948.

"If such a plan exists, it is a plot against the Palestinian people as much as it is a plot against Jordan," Abdullah said.

Ghassan Sharbal, the editor in chief of the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, warned the Gaza pullback was a tactical retreat.

"Sometimes a warrior is forced to retreat a step. But that doesn't mean he wants peace," Sharbal wrote in a front-page column. "The retreat aims to redraw the lines, a redeployment to strengthen his ability to fight the next battle. ... That's how the withdrawal from Gaza can be understood."

Still, an end to a nearly 38-year-long occupation of the Gaza Strip was a cause for celebration for many. On Monday, Palestinian guerrillas and civilians raised AK assault rifles and danced in the streets at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon. Old women in long robes and traditional white head scarves and children in militia garb joined in the Arabic Dabkeh dance to the tune of bagpipes.

In Al-Hayat, Maher Osman wrote that the Israeli withdrawal "deserves a celebration as big as the amount of Palestinian land they leave. So the Palestinians are tailoring their joy and their parties to the size of the Gaza Strip and the areas of the West Bank."

Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Tuesday it was a "historic day," which he hoped will enable the Palestinians to establish a "sovereign state that would bring security, stability and peace in the area."

Kuwait's Cabinet said in a statement that it hoped the pullout was a "first step toward ending Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories" and that it would "revive peace efforts in the area."

In Dubai, the independent Gulf News daily said the international community must "pressure Israel to leave other occupied lands, particularly the West Bank, including East Jerusalem," where the Palestinians claim as the capital of their would-be state.

Nine hardline Palestinian factions, including the radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a joint statement that the Gaza pullout was the "fruit of the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people."

"The retreat of the occupation from Gaza is the beginning of liberation and not the end of the struggle with the Zionist enemy," it added.

Some were hopeful the withdrawal means Israel has changed its attitude and is open to compromise in peace with the Palestinians and Arabs.

"We can do without this rhetoric and give them (Israelis) the benefit of the doubt," Jordanian civil servant Mohammed Fawzi, 45, said. "Tomorrow will prove them right or wrong."