Friday, May 21, 2004
At least 43 homes were destroyed and many damaged in the refugee camp.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli troops pulled back from two neighborhoods in this sprawling Palestinian refugee camp today, leaving a bleak landscape of demolished and damaged homes, torn-up roads and flattened cars.
Israel said its four-day military offensive in search of arms-smuggling tunnels and militants will continue. The army said no tunnels have been found so far and only one Palestinian was arrested after soldiers questioned hundreds. Security officials believed most of the militants fled before the invasion.
Municipal officials said at least 43 homes were demolished and dozens more damaged in the camp since the offensive began Tuesday. Forty Palestinians have been killed, including gunmen and eight demonstrators hit by a tank shell.
The army said it deliberately demolished seven homes, including one belonging to an Islamic Jihad militant. Other damage to homes and roads was caused by heavy military vehicles and Palestinian militant roadside bombs, the army said.
Damage
In the Brazil neighborhood, 25 houses were razed and streets were torn up, local officials said. In many cases, the facades of houses caved in or were shorn off, apparently damage from wide armored vehicles moving through the narrow alleys.
Residents rummaged through the rubble, retrieving mattresses, photo albums, shoes and clothing. A boy, oblivious to his surroundings, sat on the ground and scooped up sand with a broken toy bulldozer.
Israeli troops left behind leaflets in Arabic urging residents not to give shelter to armed men "who are using your homes and are hiding inside like rats."
Yacoub Othman, 55, a resident of the Brazil neighborhood, said he was hit by random fire in the leg as he walked down the stairs in his home Wednesday but couldn't get medical help.
"I tried to sterilize the wound with the little alcohol we had at home, but I couldn't even open the window and call on my neighbor to call for an ambulance because the snipers were right in front of us, and the bulldozer was working in the street in front of us," said Othman. Doctors said Othman's wound became infected.
Hard-hit neighborhood
Reporters were still unable today to get into the hardest-hit neighborhood, Tel Sultan, which is home to 25,000 people. Local officials said 10 homes were demolished there, and more were damaged. Resident Fathi Abdel-Al, speaking by telephone, described a scene of smoldering and charred cars, toppled electricity poles and sewage running in the streets.
Abdel Rahim Abu Jazer, 42, a teacher, searched for food and water for his children "I hardly recognized my own street," he said. "I don't think an earthquake could do what the Israeli army did to this area."
In Tel Sultan, residents lost water and electricity during part of the Israeli offensive. Doctors said relief convoys were still unable to enter sections of the camp.
Israeli security officials said the offensive is not over. A key objective remains the widening of an Israeli patrol road between Rafah and the Egyptian border, which would make it more difficult for weapons smugglers to dig tunnels.