BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip, 2 December 2002 — Israeli troops raided a Palestinian-ruled town in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing two people and destroying a three-story apartment building in an operation to raze the family homes of wanted Palestinians, witnesses said. Residents of Beit Lahiya said 30 armored vehicles, backed by three helicopter gunships, rumbled into the town and cut it off from Gaza City, seven km away, before leaving about three hours later.
Hospital officials said a 32-year-old man had died in a neighborhood which had seen fighting and 20 other local people had been wounded.
The body of an elderly Palestinian was found under the rubble of one of the three homes demolished by the Israeli forces, residents said. The deaf and nearly blind 72-year-old father of a wanted Palestinian was killed when the army dynamited his home. Ashur Dib Salem was only discovered by Palestinian workers and neighbors cleaning up the debris after the army blew up his building, witness and medical sources added.
Israeli military sources said such demolitions can deter Palestinians from attacking, as they know their kin will suffer.
But one of the buildings razed yesterday was a three-story apartment complex, home to several families. Dazed residents gazed at the rubble, most barefoot in the dust, some sobbing.
In another offensive, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired two missiles at a Palestinian car carrying three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip yesterday, wounding one of them and three bystanders, Palestinian security sources said.
They said the men, from the Hamas group, leapt out of the vehicle as the Apache helicopter struck between the town of Beit Lahiya and Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry was rebuffed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday for publicly expressing his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, Israeli official sources said.
“Sharon and Netanyahu stressed that the ambassador was not authorized to make such a declaration, which does not reflect the government’s position,” Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
In another development, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s second in command Mahmud Abbas has urged Palestinian factions to halt all military attacks against Israel, in comments published here yesterday.
