123 families left homeless as Israel bulldozes 73 houses
RAFAH (Gaza Strip) Jan 10: A dozen Israeli tanks and bulldozers razed 73 houses in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early on Thursday, the town governor said, after the killing of four Israeli soldiers by Hamas militants from the Rafah area.
The tanks and bulldozers carried out their task amid heavy firing, witnesses said. The Israeli army said its forces came under fire from grenades and automatic weapons, but there were no reports of casualties.
The Israelis ended their operation and withdrew at dawn, leaving clusters of newly-homeless Palestinians shivering in the cold mud around makeshift campfires, close to the craters of what had until then been their homes.
The tanks and bulldozers had begun destroying homes under cover of heavy machine-gun fire in Block O, a neighbourhood under Palestinian self-rule in the town on the Egyptian border, witnesses and security sources said.
Block O sits close to the border zone, which falls under tight Israeli military control and is a frequent flashpoint.
Rafah’s governor Sufian al-Agha said that 73 houses had been flattened and 123 families left homeless, adding that some women and children had been treated for shock and cold after the operation.
He called the district a “disaster zone.”
“We are hoping international organisations will do something. I am surprised there has been no international stand against the Israeli practices here,” he said. He said Israel had also destroyed some Palestinian fishing boats and motors on the Gaza coast.
The governor said there had been no firing in the area since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called for an end to Israeli attacks on December 16.
“I was surprised the Israelis bulldozed these houses. There was no shooting for three weeks,” he told AFP.
An Israeli army spokesman said the buildings destroyed had provided cover for gunmen attacking army posts, as well as providing a blind for weapons smuggling from Egypt, just across the border.
Already on Wednesday evening, Israeli tanks had moved into Palestinian land near Gaza international airport close to Rafah and bulldozed a Palestinian security post, less than 10 kilometres from Kerem Shalom.
Israeli forces had earlier taken over three Palestinian navy police stations in the Mawasy area of the southern Gaza Strip under Israeli security control. The Palestinian police officers were disarmed and evicted.
Two abandoned Palestinian police posts east of Rafah had also been shelled by Israeli tanks after the Hamas raid, which was the first successful cross-border attack by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip.
US CRITICISM: The United States criticized Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, saying it would not help end violence.
A US State Department official said: “We have been very clear about the need for Palestinian action against violence and terror. At the same time we do not believe that demolitions of Palestinian property and homes can contribute to the restoration of calm and an end to violence.”
The official, who asked not to be named, was citing language approved in the State Department.
ISLAMIC JIHAD: The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said on Thursday it was scrapping a deal with Yasser Arafat not to mount attacks in Israel, opening the way to fresh violence and dealing a blow to US peace efforts.
In the latest blow to peace hopes, Islamic Jihad’s military wing said it was abandoning its freeze on attacks inside the Jewish state, a move taken after Arafat’s December 16 ceasefire call, because Israel was continuing to kill Palestinians.
“We in the Jerusalem Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad in Palestine, announce that starting from today we will not adhere to the understanding with...the (Palestinian) Authority and its security services,” the group said in a statement.
Islamic Jihad issued a statement in Lebanon dismissing the earlier announcement, but there have often been differences between the movement’s operational arms based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and officials living in exile.
A senior Islamic Jihad official in the West Bank said the group would “not necessarily” resume attacks but said there was “no justification to keep our hands tied behind our backs”.—AFP / Reuters
