GAZA STRIP: ISRAELI ARMY BLOWS UP THREE 13-STOREY PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY BUILDINGS IN LARGEST DEMOLITION SINCE UPRISING BEGAN
Record ID:
400501
GAZA STRIP: ISRAELI ARMY BLOWS UP THREE 13-STOREY PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY BUILDINGS IN LARGEST DEMOLITION SINCE UPRISING BEGAN
- Title: GAZA STRIP: ISRAELI ARMY BLOWS UP THREE 13-STOREY PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY BUILDINGS IN LARGEST DEMOLITION SINCE UPRISING BEGAN
- Date: 26th October 2003
- Summary: (W1)NETZARIM JUNCTION, GAZA STRIP (OCTOBER 26, 2003) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. WIDE OF LARGE BUILDING IN CENTRAL GAZA; LARGE EXPLOSION COMING FROM THIRTEEN STOREY BUILDING 0.15 2. VARIOUS OF AFTERMATH OF BUILDING (SOUNDS OF EXPLOSIONS 0.58 (W1)AL-ZAHRA, GAZA STRIP (OCTOBER 25, 2003) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) 3. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI
- Embargoed: 10th November 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NETZARIM JUNCTION/ AL-ZAHRA, GAZA STRIP
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA7F8ZSB294OHWQRRV7ID148ETE
- Story Text: Largest Israeli demolition since the Palestinian
uprising began.
The Israeli army blew up three 13-storey Palestinian
Authority buildings in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (October
26), sending shock waves from the deafening explosion
kilometres away.
The partially constructed buildings were dynamited
after troops temporarily evacuated an estimated 2,000
Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip town of al-Zahrah
to safety.
A flash of light was seen against the night sky as the
simultaneous blasts sent all three buildings tumbling down
and a cloud of grey smoke from the rubble rising into the
air.
Apartments in Gaza City shook from the force of the
blast which took place at about 2.30 a.m. (0030 GMT) and
could be felt across the border in Israel.
It was the largest Israeli demolition of Palestinian
buildings since the Palestinian uprising began three years
ago after peace talks deadlocked.
The Israeli army says the buildings were used by
militants to observe troop movements before launching an
attack on the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim on
Friday (24 October) in which three soldiers were killed,
two of them women, security sources said.
Leaflets in Arabic were distributed to residents in the
hours before the explosion saying: "You must leave your
homes immediately until the end of this operation. The army
is going to blow up some sites. Please leave your windows
open, turn off electrical devices and go to the southern
part of your neighbourhood. Anyone who stays is risking his
life. Anyone seen with a weapon will risk his life."
One Israeli security official said plans to demolish
the buildings were drawn up about a year ago but the
decision to implement them was taken only after Friday's
(October 24) attack, which was claimed by the militant
Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.
The source explained that the two Palestinian gunmen
behind Friday's attack had spent weeks monitoring patrols
and troop movements in the heavily guarded settlement in
central Gaza from the towers.
The militants carried out their gunfire and grenade
attack as fog shrouded the settlement early on Friday
morning. One militant was killed and the other escaped.
Senior security sources said all the several hundred
Israeli settlers living at Netzarim had taken refuge in
bomb shelters while the Gaza buildings had been blown up.
Hundreds of Israeli troops, including demolition
experts and humanitarian liaison officers, were deployed in
the operation to evacuate residents living in a 400 metre
radius of the three buildings earmarked for destruction.
Commanders monitored the situation on live video from a
truck several kilometres from the scene.
Also in the Gaza Strip late on Saturday (October 25),
Israeli troops surrounded a security building in central
Gaza, near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim that was
attacked on Friday, and demanded those inside leave with
their hands above their heads.
An Israeli military official said there was a "pinpoint
operation against the terror infrastructure" underway, but
declined to provide further details.
Israeli soldiers snatched two Palestinian militants from
West Bank hospitals on Saturday (October 25) in a raid
launched after three soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip
in a joint attack by Islamic militant groups.
The arrests followed a week of escalated violence which
dealt a further blow to a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace
already marred by bloodshed since its June launch.
Two militants Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a
grenade and gunfire attack against soldiers barracks in
Netzarim on Friday, killing three soldiers, including two
women. The gunman from Hamas was killed, the other escaped.
The attack took place days after Islamic Jihad leader
Ramadan Shallah and senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal
agreed to enhance "field cooperation" in a meeting in
Syria. Both groups are sworn to Israel's destruction.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,
which is linked to President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction,
have spearheaded attacks against Israel in a three-year-old
Palestinian uprising which began after peace talks
deadlocked.
Senior Hamas official Adnan Asfour said Hamas leaders
also held a separate meeting with leaders from the
Iranian-backed Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group. He gave
no details.
But he said the Hamas and Islamic Jihad meeting was
about on-the-ground cooperation "to resist the occupation".
The peace plan received a further set back this week
when Israel announced it would build more than 30 houses in
Jewish settlements and said it may expand a controversial
security barrier it says is to keep suicide bombers out of
its cities.
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