VARIOUS: ISRAELI NIGHT OPERATION IN TWO GAZA REFUGEE CAMPS LEAVE NOTHING MORE THAN RUBBLE OF SOME HOUSES

Record ID: 645879

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI NIGHT OPERATION IN TWO GAZA REFUGEE CAMPS LEAVE NOTHING MORE THAN RUBBLE OF SOME HOUSES
  • Date: 3rd January 2003
  • Summary: RAFAH (JANUARY 2, 2003) (REUTERS) CLOSE OF RUBBLE; SLV PAN OUT TO CONCRETE WALL RUBBLE FALLING ONTO CAR; SLV BUILDING DAMAGED DURING ISRAELI OPERATION MV PAN OUT TO FRONT OF BUILDING WHERE YOUTH HAVE GATHERED; SLV DAMAGE PAN OUT TO MAN CLEANING WRECKAGE; SLV BAGS PILED INSIDE BUILDING; MV BAGS PILED INSIDE BUILDING NEXT TO YELLOW PLASTIC JUGS (4 SHOTS) GAZA (JANUARY 2, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV PEOPLE SIFTING THROUGH DEBRIS IN BUREIJ VILLAGE; SLV YOUTH CLIMBING ON RUBBLE; SLV PAN OF AREA DEMOLISHED BY ISRAELI TROOPS; SLV PEOPLE SIFTING THROUGH DEBRIS (2 SHOTS) JERUSALEM (JANUARY 2, 2003) (REUTERS) MV ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN AVI PAZNER ON THE PHONE SEATED AT HIS DESK (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN AVI PAZNER SAYING "We are searching for well known terrorists. we are searching for arms. we are searching for manufacturing places of missiles which hitting our kibbutz and out villages near the Gaza Strip. We are looking for terrorists with blood on their hands and we are conducting searches which have proved very useful in the past in preventing terrorist attack. We have no intention of staying in the Gaza Strip. Our operation is a clean up and mop up operation."
  • Embargoed: 18th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA/ RAFAH, GAZA/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/ JERUSALEM/ MAOR, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA8W9FSPXP84EYIREH1P9Q1AAOK
  • Story Text: In two refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza, a two-hour night-time operation Israeli forces looking for wanted militants, left little more than rubble of some houses.
    An Israeli government spokesman justified the operation.
    In Maor, Israeli police said they killed a Palestinian gunman who broke into a home in the Israeli village five kilometres (three miles) from the West Bank, an Israeli couple in the house escaped when his assault rifle jammed.
    Israeli forces withdrew from the Nusairat and Bureijre refugee camp on outskirts of Gaza and Rafah after a two-hour night-time operation, designed to look for wanted militants.
    The Israeli forces, backed by assault helicopters, battled with gunmen in Gaza refugee camps on Thursday (January 2, 2003) after killing four Palestinians who the army said were on their way to attack Jewish settlements.
    The army said it sent infantry and armour, supported by assault helicopters, in the central Gaza Strip as part of its continuing battle against "terrorism".
    The camps are considered strongholds of Palestinian militants waging a more than two-year-old uprising for independence and the violence came amid U.S. calls for Middle East calm to avoid jarring Washington's plans for possible war on Iraq.
    In the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, where Israeli forces regularly operate to uncover militant gunrunner tunnels from nearby Egypt, witnesses said bulldozers demolished 10 structures.
    The army said it destroyed the buildings after gunmen inside had fired at soldiers and two soldiers were wounded in the operation.
    In Jerusalem, Israeli Government Spokesman Avi Pazner reacted Thursday to the Israeli troops that went into Gaza in pursuit of Palestinian militants who continue to attack Israelis saying: "We have no intention in staying the Gaza Strip. Our operation is a clean up and mop up operation."
    In Maor, an Israeli agricultural village five kilometres (three miles) from the West Bank, a three-hour night-time stand-off ended with the death of the Palestinian gunman who had holed up in the house from which the Israeli couple had fled.
    Israeli police described the event by after securing the building their counter-terrorist unit made contact with the terrorist who was armed with an M-16 and still posing threat, and killed him.
    The owner of the home, Roland Mori, an immigrant from Switzerland, told reporters the gunman got off one wild shot before his rifle jammed, he shouted to his wife, in French, to flee and immediately began to throw everything he found on the living table at the terrorist, his spouse jumped out of a bedroom window and he ran out the front door, leaving the gunman inside.
    In Ramallah, while Palestinian President Yasser Arafat meet with a European delegation - a senior advisor to Arafat, Nabil Abu Rdainah, reacted to Israel's military move saying "This continued Israeli escalation is aimed, as usual, to ruin any possibility of finding a political solution for the crisis. The Israelis, as usual, are endangering the interests of everybody including the United States and the Middle East by continuing and escalating their aggression their killings and assassinations and demolition homes of the Palestinians civilian people. "
    At least 1,760 Palestinians and 675 Israelis have been killed since the uprising erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.
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