International
Israel razes 32 Palestinian homes
GAZA CITY, JAN. 10. Israeli bulldozers destroyed 32 homes in a Gaza refugee camp early today, Palestinians said. The raid came in retaliation for a deadly assault by Islamic militants on an Israeli army post that threatened to derail U.S. truce efforts.
A dozen Israeli bulldozers and armoured vehicles drove into the Rafah refugee camp before dawn today and began flattening buildings, witnesses said. Residents fled their homes in heavy rain, and local officials said hundreds were made homeless.
Rafah was home to the two assailants who stormed an Israeli army outpost near the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing four soldiers _ all members of a Bedouin Arab battalion _ before being shot dead.
Israeli officials said that in all, eight assailants were involved in the attack, including six who remained on the Gaza side and intentionally set off alarms along the high-security border fence to divert troops from the outpost to be attacked. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility, saying the attack was partly a response to Israel's seizure from "Arab waters" of a vessel laden with 50 tonnes of Iranian-made weapons.
Meanwhile, Israel implicated a notorious U.S.-wanted member of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in an alleged plot to smuggle weapons to the Palestinians that was foiled last week. A senior Israeli security official said Imad Mughniyeh, a shadowy pro-Iranian militant and suspected terrorist believed by some to be Hezbollah's security chief, played a critical role in the affair. _ AP
The Israeli official declined to characterise the evidence against Mughniyeh and was cagey about the nature of his involvement in the plot which Israel alleged was instigated by the Palestinians but carried out with major assistance from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Teheran.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
International
|
