Jerusalem ? Prime Minister Ariel Sharon late Thursday ordered a troop pullout from a refugee camp, defense officials said, signaling that a two-week offensive in northern Gaza that has left more than 100 Palestinians dead could be easing.

The move came hours after Sharon announced that all 8,200 Jewish settlers would be pulled out of the Gaza Strip starting next summer in a 12-week operation.

Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered a redeployment in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been carrying out their largest Gaza operation in four years of fighting. Defense officials said troops were ordered to pull out of the Jebaliya refugee camp.

Army Radio said the redeployment would amount to a pullout from northern Gaza, restoring the situation before the invasion Sept. 30. However, the officials said the army would react quickly if Palestinian militants resumed rocket fire at Israeli towns.

The radio station said the Israelis were leaving with new capabilities to spot and hit militants launching rockets, an apparent reference to pilotless drone aircraft Palestinians say have been hovering over the territory, sometimes firing missiles.

Before troops moved, however, the Israeli air force early today fired a missile at a group of militants in the Jebaliya camp, critically wounding four, Palestinians said. One later died of his wounds, hospital officials said. Military officials said the air force fired a missile at a group of armed Palestinians.

In Washington, the Bush administration renewed its approval of a planned pullout from Gaza and said the timing was up to Sharon’s government but hoped the withdrawal would be a link to peace based on the “road map” plan.

A Palestinian woman holds her child as she stands in the rubble of her destroyed house in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from Beit Lahiya early Thursday.

The original “unilateral disengagement” plan, approved in June, called for a four-stage pullout beginning in summer 2005. Sharon tried to advance the date to the beginning of 2005, but a month ago reverted to the original formula.

Early Thursday, Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya after tearing up roads, flattening greenhouses and knocking down dozens of houses.

The two-day foray into the town was part of the Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, now in its third week. Five Palestinian militants and an elderly civilian were killed in three missile strikes, starting Wednesday evening.