Israeli forces, uncovering a tunnel used by Palestinian militants for a deadly attack on the Gaza Strip boundary, razed at least 120 Palestinian-owned shops nearby, witnesses say. They said two army bulldozers backed by four tanks ploughed through a cluster of buildings leading up to Erez, a heavily fortified Israeli industrial zone on the Gaza-Israel boundary, after giving shopowners a summary notice to evacuate. An Israeli army spokesman said the stores had concealed a 60 metre (180 foot) tunnel discovered under Erez, which employs some 3,000 Gaza workers.
On Thursday, two gunmen from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group inside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, sneaked into Erez and killed a soldier before being shot dead by security personnel. A Brigades statement said the two militants had accessed the site via the tunnel. Word of Friday’s demolitions quickly spread through the impoverished Gaza Strip, which has been hard hit by Israeli crackdowns. Dozens of Palestinian youths threw stones at the Israeli forces, and troops fired in the air to disperse them, witnesses said. One boy was wounded by Israeli fire, medics said. "This was all I had with which to support my family. What shall I do now?" a Palestinian shopkeeper said, surveying the ruin. There was no immediate assessment of the full cost of the damages.
no comment from me tonight on this, just sadness at the cycle of violence |