Israeli Air force Apaches attacked Block ‘J’ in Rafah south of Gaza Strip, Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses said the Apache gun ships were hovering above the area all night.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into a Gaza refugee camp in the early hours of Thursday morning and began demolishing houses.
An army source said troops had entered the Rafah camp to conduct a ‘centered operation against terror infrastructures in the area’.
While Israel Radio reported that a total of six houses had been destroyed, eyewitnesses in Rafah said, the number of demolished houses is way more than six since the buildings are attached to each other in the refugee camp.
Witnesses said troops ordered many people to leave their homes as several tanks and bulldozers began demolishing houses. Hundreds of families left their homes and moved to the nearby Shaboura camp.
Israel has frequently raided the camp. Thousands of Palestinians have been made homeless after Israeli forces destroyed their homes claiming they are hunting for tunnels dug by resistance groups to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.
15 Wounded in an Air Strike in Khan Younis
Army helicopter fired Wednesday early morning hours a missile at a group of Palestinians in Khan Younis refugee camp, wounding 15 people. Palestinian Police Succeeded in Bringing back calm to Beit Hanoun.
The air strike came in the midst of a military operation, where tanks rolled into the camp and army bulldozers razed several homes and structures adjacent Neveh Dekalim settlement.
Medical sources reported that all the wounded were civilians, and that 4 of them were in critical conditions.
Army source said that the operation was “part of army work against terrorist infrastructureâ€Â, adding that army had no information whether the wounded were resistance gunmen or civilians.
Local sources reported that scared residents fled their homes as army bulldozers demolished homes bordering the settlement of Neveh Dekalim for the purpose of building a separation.
As no recent attacks were reported against Neveh Dekalim, the army operation is seen as part of the efforts to smash resistance prior to the intended Gaza pullout.
Israel is increasingly worried that its pullout would be seen as a victory to armed resistance groups, therefore creating similar conditions to the ones that followed the withdrawal from Southern Lebanon.
A source in the Israeli defense ministry said Tuesday that Palestinian police recently deployed in Beit Hanoun area after army pulled out of the region was making “certain efforts†to prevent the firing of Qassam rockets from the area.
Army pulled out of Beit Hanoun built-up parts last week, after more than a month of failed efforts to prevent rocket firing.
Armed Palestinian police was deployed in the area, apparently through an agreement with Israel. Since then, no rockets were fired at the southern Negev area.
PA security were seen patrolling streets, checking cars to prevent transport of the munitions, and conducting talks with activists from the armed organizations, warning them against firing Qassams.
Palestinian Authority source accused Israel with attempting to thwart their efforts to restore law and order through escalating attacks in the different parts of the Gaza Strip.
