Israeli tanks pull back after deadly raid

ISRAELI tanks and bulldozers pulled back from the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya yesterday after tearing up roads, flattening strawberry greenhouses and knocking down walls of dozens of houses in what residents said was the most devastating raid in four years of fighting.

The two-day foray was part of a major Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, now in its third week. Five Palestinian militants and an elderly civilian were killed in three separate missile strikes in the fighting.

Israel said the campaign is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns. Palestinians say much of the destruction is wanton.

Since the September 29 start of the campaign, triggered by a deadly Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli town, 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire, including dozens of militants and 18 children and teens under the age of 16.

Despite the heavy army presence in northern Gaza, Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas and Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Israeli military commentators said yesterday while an offensive might appease Israeli public opinion, it would not stop rocket fire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Israeli parliament’s Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee one objective of the offensive was to ensure calm during Israel’s planned withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

He said the campaign would continue as long as Israelis were being harmed.

Mr Sharon told legislators that the evacuation of some 8,200 Israelis from Gaza settlements would begin in May and last up to 12 weeks. The prime minister has presented timetables in the past, but yesterday marked the first time he gave a starting time for the evacuation of settlers.

For the past two weeks, hundreds of armoured vehicles have patrolled a nine-kilometre-wide stretch of northern Gaza including the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jebaliya refugee camp.

Yesterday armoured vehicles pulled back to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya after a two-day operation that left a wide path of destruction.