BEIT HANUN, Gaza, 6 August 2004 — The Israeli Army left a trail of devastation in Beit Hanun yesterday after a five-week siege and occupation of the Gaza Strip’s traditional breadbasket which failed to put a halt to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
Armored vehicles trundled out of most of Beit Hanun one day after extending their incursion deep into densely populated districts to hunt for the elusive squads firing makeshift rockets into Israel. Tanks and armored vehicles began leaving the center of town at first light and had completed their pullout four hours later, residents said. Troops had also withdrawn from around the nearby town of Jabaliya and its refugee camp.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that forces were being “redeployed” but gave no further details. “This is a redeployment, not a withdrawal. Our operations to prevent the firing of Qassam (makeshift rockets) will continue,” he told AFP.
However, the military later said that two more rockets landed in southern Israel yesterday. An umbrella militant organization, the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for the firing of the rockets which landed harmlessly in the Negev desert.
Twenty Palestinians were killed during the course of the operation which originally saw tanks seal off the entrance to Beit Hanun. They then later moved into the center of the town and expanded their operations to include Jabaliya where three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had ordered troops into Beit Hanun, home to some 30,000 Palestinians, in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot which killed two people, including a three-year-old boy.
Residents said that much of Beit Hanun’s infrastructure had been devastated in the course of the operation as troops demolished buildings, tore up roads and razed orange groves which had been used as cover for the firing of the Qassam rockets, named after the military wing of the Islamist group Hamas.
Hamas militants, sworn to destroying Israel, indicated they might abandon the tactic of firing rockets into Israel. Such attacks rarely cause casualties but often result in punishing military raids to ferret out militants. “The resistance we continue but definitely the forms of resistance will be reviewed in a way that would serve the interests of the Palestinians,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri told Reuters.
Palestinian Housing Minister Abdelrahman Hamad, who comes from Beit Hanun, said the latest incursion had caused some $40 million worth of damage to homes, farms and general infrastructure. He said that eight million acres of farmland in the northern Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed by the incursion.
“We cannot say that Israel has gone for good as they have redeployed to the hills to the east and can come back any time,” he told AFP. “They have left a huge amount of destruction. As you know, Beit Hanun is the only real source of farming and citrus fruits in Gaza and now it’s a desert.”
Beit Hanun is renowned for its orange and lemon trees but hundreds could be seen smashed to pieces on a tour of the area yesterday morning. The tarmac on the roads had been churned into rubble by tanks which had effectively added two extra lanes by trundling down the pavements.
At least 30 houses were totally destroyed with residents trying to pick through the rubble to retrieve clothes and possessions. Kifar Al-Majdalawi was trying to retrieve some of her family’s belongings from the wreckage while holding her three-month-old baby. It was the first time she had been able to venture outside for several weeks.
“I bought this just before they came and now look at it,” she said tearfully as she retrieved a baby’s shawl from underneath the rubble. “This is inhuman. Just imagine how they (the Israelis) would react if we did this to them.”
The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees cited the Israeli operation in Beit Hanun in ordering all foreign staff based in its Gaza City headquarters to temporarily move to Amman on Wednesday. UNRWA commissioner general Peter Hansen and other staff came under Israeli fire in Beit Hanun last month after they had overseen a food delivery to besieged residents.
Israel is, meanwhile, set to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt where thousands of Palestinians have been stranded for nearly a month, Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said yesterday. “There have been security assessments and there is a very high chance that it will reopen tomorrow (Friday),” an Israeli military source told AFP. A Palestinian security source confirmed “the Israelis have informed us that they will reopen it tomorrow”.
On the Egyptian side, a border official said the Israelis had pledged to open the crossing to traffic from both sides at 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) today.
“The terminal will operate for a period of eight hours every day to resolve the crisis of people stuck at the border,” he said.
He added that only ordinary travelers would be allowed to pass and not commercial traffic. Egyptian officials say that some 3,400 Palestinians are now stuck on the border. It was sealed off over security fears that Palestinian militants may be burrowing a tunnel underneath it.
