- Forcing thousands of residents to leave their homes in
the night, the Israeli army has blown up three Palestinian Authority buildings
in the Gaza Strip.
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- Sunday's deafening explosion sent shock waves kilometres
away. It was the largest such demolition since the start of the Intifada
three years ago.
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- The 13-storey partly constructed buildings were dynamited
after troops at night evacuated an estimated 2000 Palestinian residents
from the Gaza Strip town of al-Zahra.
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- A flash of light was seen against the night sky as the
simultaneous blasts sent all three buildings tumbling down and a cloud
of grey smoke from the rubble rose into the air.
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- Apartments in Gaza City shook from the force of the blast
which took place at about 02:30 (00:30 GMT) and could be felt across the
border in Israel.
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- Message
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- "It was very accurate, very well done. I hope there
is no collateral damage. I hope it will be a good message to the Palestinian
Authority not to let their infrastructure be used for terror," said
Brigadier-General Gadi Shammi, commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza
Strip.
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- Security sources said the buildings were used by Palestinian
groups to observe troop movements before launching a resistance attack
on the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim on Friday in which three soldiers
were killed.
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- "It was very accurate, very well done. I hope there
is no collateral damage."
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- Brigadier-General Gadi Shammi,
- Israeli army
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- Leaflets in Arabic were distributed to residents in the
hours before the explosion saying: "You must leave your homes immediately
until the end of this operation.
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- "The army is going to blow up some sites. Please
leave your windows open, turn off electrical devices and go to the southern
part of your neighbourhood. Anyone who stays is risking his life. Anyone
seen with a weapon will risk his life."
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- Friday attack
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- One security official said plans to demolish the buildings
were drawn up about a year ago but the decision to implement them was taken
only after Friday's attack, which was claimed by the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad.
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- "We gave them a chance," the source said. "We
expect buildings owned by the Palestinian Authority will not be used for
terrorist activities, but after the raid on Friday we saw that we could
not let this go on."
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- Senior security sources said all the several hundred
settlers living at Netzarim had taken refuge in bomb shelters while the
Gaza buildings were being blown up.
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- Hundreds of Israeli troops, including demolition experts
and humanitarian liaison officers, were deployed in the operation to evacuate
residents living in a 400m radius of the three buildings earmarked for
destruction.
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- Commanders monitored the situation on live video from
a truck several kilometres from the scene.
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3C7B312C-533D-4013-8D26-94E8B6AB1136.htm
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