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Israeli Forces Pull Out of Northern Beit Hanoun
Israeli forces ended a bloody weeklong operation in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun early Tuesday, leaving behind a swath of destroyed homes, uprooted trees and streets muddied with sewage water from pipes destroyed by tanks and bulldozers. Nearly 50 Palestinians, most of them militants, and an Israeli soldier were killed in the offensive designed to curb Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns. But hours after the troops pulled out, militants began firing rockets again from a field in the town. There were no reports of injuries, but eight Palestinians were killed in clashes in nearby areas, including three killed in a tank strike on a lawmaker's home.

The army said it uncovered many weapons and arrested dozens of militants in the operation. Forces took up new positions outside the town, and did not leave the Gaza Strip completely, the military said.

"If I was against the rockets, now I will encourage people to launch rockets from every spot, from everywhere because rockets are not a pretext for what is going on here," Yazgi said. "This is an act of terror."
In the dawn light, hundreds of Beit Hanoun residents who spent most of the last week holed up inside their homes as troops and militants battled in the streets milled around inspecting the damage the army left behind. Hundreds climbed over large sand embankments blocking the entrances to the town, making their way in and out of the area that had been a war zone. Women stood outside homes whose outer walls had been damaged by tanks that also ripped up asphalt and cars as they rumbled through streets. Telephone and electricity wires lay exposed on the ground, and the wall around the town cemetery was in ruins, with several tombstones uprooted. Some residents tried to fix the tombstones, while others dug fresh graves for those killed in the fighting.

Khalil Yazgi, 45, looked on as children and women picked through the rubble of the four-story structure that had been home to his extended family of 50. All that remained was a staircase and the exposed rooms of an apartment. "If I was against the rockets, now I will encourage people to launch rockets from every spot, from everywhere because rockets are not a pretext for what is going on here," Yazgi said. "This is an act of terror."
Posted by: Fred 2006-11-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=171311