MIDDLE EAST Israeli forces attack Gaza refugee camp

Palestinian suicide bombers blew up buses before the attack.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli forces destroyed two five-story apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp early today after evacuating thousands of Palestinians from a neighborhood, residents and the military said.
The operation ended shortly before daybreak, Palestinian witnesses said, leaving 40 families homeless and local infrastructure damaged.
The Gaza operation came less than two days after two Palestinian suicide bombers blew up buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 passengers and shattering a six-month lull in large-scale attacks.
The military said Palestinian militants used the two apartment buildings to fire rockets and mortars at nearby Jewish settlements and to shoot at Israeli troops. In recent days, 10 Israeli civilians and soldiers were wounded in dozens of attacks from the structures, the military said.
Large operation
Israeli forces often move into Gaza camps to destroy buildings said to be used by militants, but this was an especially large operation aimed at destroying relatively new apartment houses where dozens of families lived.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the "Austrian project" neighborhood of the Khan Younis refugee camp before midnight and ordered 6,000 residents there to leave their homes, residents said. They were sent to a schoolyard while soldiers knocked down the two buildings, leaving the camp at daybreak.
Brigade commander Yehoshua Rinski, who oversaw the action, said its purpose was to deny Palestinian militants the opportunity to fire at Jewish settlements.
"The situation that the Palestinians use urban places where their civilians live and shoot toward our settlements cannot be tolerated," he said.
At the beginning of the operation, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a group of Palestinians planting a land mine, exploding the device. Seven people were wounded, Palestinian hospital officials said. There is a mosque nearby, but it was not targeted, according to military officials.
Israel is planning to pull out of Gaza and evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements there next year. Armed Palestinian groups are determined to show that they drove the Israelis out, and the Israelis are just as determined to demonstrate that they are in control, hitting at the militants.