- NURIA, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
-- Israeli forces blew up two large apartment blocks in the Gaza Strip
on Thursday, destroying the homes of hundreds of Palestinians, two days
after suicide bombers killed 16 people in Israel.
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- The army, carrying out its biggest Gaza incursion in
weeks, said the operation in the Khan Younis refugee camp targeted twin
five-storey buildings used by Palestinian militants for attacks on Israeli
soldiers and settlers.
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- "We strongly condemn the Israeli aggression...against
our people in Khan Younis," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat
told Reuters, saying it would bring an escalation of violence.
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- International rights groups condemn Israel's demolition
of Palestinian houses as collective punishment. Israel says it is acting
in self-defense against militant groups spearheading a nearly four-year-old
uprising.
-
- The overnight raid followed Israeli threats to step up
strikes on militants after a double bus bombing on Tuesday in the desert
city of Beersheba, the first such attacks in the Jewish state in nearly
six months.
-
- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to press ahead
with an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Gaza by the end of next year,
but the latest spiral of violence could complicate his plan.
-
- Militants are determined to claim any Israeli pullout
as a victory, but the army has vowed to smash armed factions first.
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- RAID ON REFUGEE CAMP
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- Israeli forces launched the Khan Younis raid late on
Wednesday with missile strikes that wounded six Palestinians, including
militants and bystanders, witnesses said.
-
- Gunmen fired anti-tank rockets at tanks and armored vehicles,
slightly wounding two soldiers, the army said.
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- Israeli troops surrounded 10 apartment buildings overlooking
the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim and ordered all 150 families to evacuate.
Many sought refuge at a local hospital carrying the few belongings they
had time to grab.
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- "The children were crying and screaming... The army
did not give us a chance to take anything, they said 'Just go'," said
Ali Khalaf-Allah, a tenant from one of the buildings.
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- Explosives experts then set charges in two of the buildings
and brought them down with deafening blasts. Witnesses said about 300 people
were left homeless.
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- Smoke drifted over the ruins after the pre-dawn blasts.
A nearby mosque was badly damaged by tank shells, witnesses said.
-
- Colonel Yehoshua Rinski, commander of the operation,
said the raid was aimed at stopping gunmen from firing at nearby settlements
and Israeli troops. Hours earlier, militants fired mortar bombs at Neve
Dekalim, a frequent target of such attacks.
-
- Violence has surged in the Gaza Strip since Sharon, once
considered the godfather of the settler movement, unveiled his plan to
evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements there next year.
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- The Islamic group Hamas said Tuesday's bus blasts were
carried out to avenge Israel's killing of two of its leaders.
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- Israeli officials threatened Syria on Wednesday over
what they said was complicity in the Beersheba attacks. Syrian officials
were not immediately available for comment.
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- Last October, Israel launched its deepest air raid into
Syria in 30 years, attacking what it said was a training camp for Palestinian
militants after a suicide bomber killed 23 people in a Haifa restaurant.
-
- Israel accuses Syria of harboring militant groups and
using Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas as surrogates against the Jewish state
-- accusations consistently denied by Damascus.
-
- - Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza
-
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