- GAZA CITY -- Israeli forces
yesterday left a trail of destruction in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza
City, blowing up homes and streets as they retreated following an agreement
to recover the body parts of six soldiers killed earlier this week.
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- In the Rafah refugee camp, at the southern end of the
Gaza Strip, at least 12 Palestinians were killed and scores wounded as
troops searched for the remains of five soldiers blown up by Palestinian
fighters. The bodies were ripped apart and spread across a wide area.
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- Israel closed internal checkpoints, leaving thousands
of Palestinians stranded and making it impossible for aid workers and journalists
in Gaza to assess the effect of the Israeli incursion in Rafah. Journalists
were refused permission to enter the Gaza Strip.
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- The remains of six soldiers killed in Gaza City on Tuesday
were returned to Israel under an agreement brokered by Egypt.
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- For the first time in two days, the residents of Zeitoun
were able to leave their homes and survey the damage caused by two days
of fighting.
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- Four hundred metres of dual carriageway had been systematically
blown up. All the street furniture - lamp posts, electricity poles, telephone
booths, trees and water tanks - had been knocked down. The street was lined
with burned out cars, walls had been punched out with explosives and only
shards of glass hung from window frames.
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- However, despite the destruction, many Palestinians considered
the Israeli withdrawal from the area to be a victory.
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- One man negotiating mounds of ploughed-up tarmac and
pools of mud and water said: "They came here. We did not go to them.
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- "We want nothing from them. This is a great victory
for the resistance.
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- "Our people were just defending themselves. We have
no intention of being terrorists."
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- An eight-storey apartment block, close to where the Israeli
troop carrier was blown up, had been flattened. Its owner, Salman Hajer,
had built the flats to house his family. His crime was to be the owner
of the building closest to where the troop carrier had been blown up.
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- He said: "This building was the result of 40 years'
work. It was meant to be the home for my sons and their families. They
have destroyed my life but I don't care.
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- "The price I paid does not matter. They were punished
for a change."
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- Yesterday, as an Israeli gunboat fired repeatedly at
the Gaza City coastline, funeral procession after funeral procession marched
through Zeitoun and the city centre. Each body was accompanied by chanting
and cheering crowds and orators whose declamations lifted the passions
of the crowds.
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- "The children of the Zionists have retreated. We
did not return the remains of their bodies until they withdrew from Zeitoun.
This is our victory. We have defeated them," said one orator.
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- Graffiti lauded Fawzi al-Madhun, a 33-year-old tailor
and Islamic Jihad activist, as the man who planted the bomb that blew up
the troop carrier. He was killed as he attempted to plant another bomb
on Wednesday.
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- At his funeral there was a cloud of the black flags of
Islamic Jihad and dozens of masked gunmen. "Do not shoot your rifles,"
said an orator. "We need all our bullets for the enemy." The
gunmen ignored him and fired off volleys as they set off to the cemetery.
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- "He was fighting because he wants to protect us.
They came here to kill us. We did not go to them. We are human beings -
we are not animals. Where do you want us to go to live? Give us a solution.
We want to live. We want our children to live like other children,"
said a cousin.
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- Paul McCann, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency, said that in 48 hours in Zeitoun, 15 people had been
killed and 226 injured. Sixteen families had been made homeless and a further
32 families had had their homes damaged. He said it was not yet possible
to asses the damage in Rafah.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1216300,00.html
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