ISRAEL Army withdraws from Gaza town

The withdrawal ends a two-day operation that left much destruction.
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from this Palestinian town today, after tearing up roads, flattening strawberry greenhouses and knocking down walls in what residents said was the most devastating raid in four years of fighting.
The two-day foray into Beit Lahiya was part of a major Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, now in its third week. As part of the latest fighting, five Palestinian militants and an elderly civilian were killed in three separate missile strikes, starting Wednesday evening.
Since the Sept. 29 start of the campaign, triggered by a deadly Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli town, 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire, including dozens of militants and 18 children and teens under the age of 16.
Israel says the campaign is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns. Palestinians say much of the destruction is wanton.
Despite the heavy army presence in northern Gaza, Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas and Jewish settlements in Gaza. Israeli military commentators wrote today that while an offensive might appease Israeli public opinion, it would not stop rocket fire.
Sharon's plans
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee in a closed-door meeting that the offensive would continue as long as Israelis were being harmed, Israel Radio said.
Sharon was also quoted as saying that he would withdraw from the Gaza Strip only if there was calm. It was not clear whether Sharon was suggesting he would delay the withdrawal, set for 2005, if violence flared.
Ehud Yatom, a legislator from Sharon's Likud Party, said the prime minister told the committee he would insist on "total quiet" during the withdrawal.
"The conclusion is that if they [the Palestinians] continue to fire Qassams [rockets] and mortars ... then there won't be disengagement," Yatom told Israel Radio, referring to Sharon's planned pullout.
For the past two weeks, hundreds of armored vehicles have patrolled a five-mile stretch of northern Gaza, including the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jebaliya refugee camp. At times, tanks remained on the outskirts, at times they moved deep into densely populated areas.
Demolition
This morning, armored vehicles pulled back to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya after a two-day operation that left a wide path of destruction. The demolitions focused on outlying farms, the center of town and old Beit Lahiya.
The army said the goal of the raid was to prevent militants from launching rockets, and that trees, farm buildings and other structures were destroyed to deprive them of cover. With tanks moving through narrow alleys, some of the destruction was unintentional, the army said.
Dozens of houses in Beit Lahiya were badly damaged and are no longer safe to live in. Armored vehicles tore up roads, destroyed water and sewage pipes and knocked down electricity poles.
Palestinian author Omar Khalil Omar, a Beit Lahiya resident, said two houses belonging to his family were damaged, and two cars crushed. He said his mother's grave, on a family plot near his home, was torn up.
"I don't know what threat my mother's grave could pose to the state of Israel," Omar said. "They simply want to uproot us from here, whether we are alive or dead. But the grave will stay and we will stay."
Beit Lahiya has been raided by the army in the past, but residents said the destruction they found today was far worse than in previous incursions.