Israeli forces pullout of Gaza border town
Residents of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza dug through the rubble of their damaged homes, bridges and UN schools today, after Israeli troops pulled out following a two-day incursion aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at Israel.
About 15 tanks moved out of populated areas of Beit Hanoun last night and headed toward the nearby Israeli border. Five helicopters hovered overhead, firing flares and machine guns to provide cover for the ground forces.
Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian militants in the town yesterday, killing two and wounding four others, hospital officials said. That raised the two-day death toll in the area to at least six Palestinians, most of them gunmen, the officials said.
The operation in Beit Hanoun was the latest stage of Israel’s wider offensive in the Gaza Strip. It was launched on June 28 after Hamas-linked militants carried out a cross-border attack on a military outpost, killing two soldiers and capturing one.
Israel has rejected the militants’ demand that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about the Israeli captive.
It has demanded that Hamas guerrillas stop firing home-made rockets at southern Israel.
On July 12, Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas joined in, attacking a military patrol in northern Israel, killing eight soldiers and capturing two more.
Since then, Israel has waged a two-front campaign, continuing its Gaza offensive while relentlessly attacking Hezbollah, which has also fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.
In Beit Hanoun, Israeli troops, tanks and bulldozers caused heavy damage to houses, farmland, electric poles and underground water pipes during their two-day operation.
They also broke into a walled compound of four vacant UN schools and damaged three of them.
“It’s very depressing to see this done to a school (compound) in this sort of deliberate way,” said Karen Abu Zayd, the UN Relief and Works Agency commissioner who visited the site.
“I’m particularly sad because this was the year we had hoped to improve the living conditions in the (refugee) camps and build additional schools and classrooms.”
An Israeli army spokesperson said it had not received any complaints from the United Nations about damage to the compound.
Mahmoud Yazji, 30, and members of his large family dug through their damaged home. Israeli tanks had knocked down a surrounding wall and destroyed the house’s kitchen and downstairs bathroom.
“The Israelis are not just targeting militants, they are attacking everything: our houses, trees, economy, even my bathroom,” he said
Mayor Mohammed Nazaek Kafarna estimated the damage to the town and its surrounding villages at £4m (€5.8m).
As part of its offensive aimed at winning the release of captured Cpl Gilad Shalit, 19, and halting rocket fire on southern Israel, the army has bombed government buildings and targeted militants across the Gaza Strip.
Israel bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry twice, collapsing part of the building and damaging dozens of homes nearby.
Israel refuses to have ties with the Palestinian government ruled by Hamas, an Islamic group that has carried out scores of suicide bombings and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Israel says Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas used his government building “to plan anti-Israel operations.”
