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Israel: no phoney terror this

Conal Urquhart

Palestinians call it ``psychological warfare''

Gaza City: The voice sounded friendly enough. ``Hi, my name is Danny. I'm an officer in Israeli military intelligence. In one hour we will blow up your house.''

Mohammed Deeb took the telephone call seriously and told his family and neighbours to get out of the building. An hour later, an Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at the four-storey building in Gaza City, destroying the ground floor and damaging the upper storeys.

Mr Deeb was on the receiving end of a new Israeli tactic of using telephone, radio and leaflets to warn Gazans of impending attacks. The army claims it is an attempt to minimise civilian casualties, but Palestinians say it is a new way of terrorising the population.

Raji Serrani, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which has collected several examples of the tactic, described it as ``psychological warfare'', adding: ``Since when did Israel feel the need to warn people that they were about to bomb their homes? They are simply playing with people's minds and inflicting a new panic in Gaza.''

The family of Ibrahim Mahmoud in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza were ordered to leave their home by an Israeli intelligence officer. The officer called back one hour later to say she had made a mistake. She ended her call to Mr Mahmoud by telling him to ``be safe'', he told the Associated Press.

The warnings, which sometimes are followed by an Israeli attack and sometimes not, are happening as Israel continues its latest invasion of the Gaza Strip. Four persons were killed and dozens injured on Thursday as Israeli tanks patrolled residential areas to the east of Gaza City. Twenty-five persons were killed on Wednesday.

Fears that Israel will destroy homes are widespread: 900 residents of the Al Nader towers, a complex of 12 apartment blocks in the north of Gaza, fled on Tuesday after 10 Israeli shells landed close to them, killing three residents. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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