Palestinians hit back after Israeli raid

Palestinians lobbed several mortar shells at an Israeli settlement in the northern Gaza Strip today hours after Israeli troops ended a raid of the area which was meant to stop such attacks.

Four days of fighting left eight Palestinians dead and more than 100 wounded, two dozen Palestinian homes demolished and tens of thousands of people without water and electricity.

Today’s mortar fire on the Israeli settlement of Netzarim hit a house and damaged several others with flying debris but no one was hurt.

Also today, a delegation Palestinian security chiefs left for Egypt for talks on Egyptian aid and training of Palestinian security forces ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

The delegation included intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi, public security head Abdel Razek Majaide, police chief Saeb Al-Ajez and Gaza security boss Moussa Arafat, who is Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s cousin and confidante.

It was the highest-ranking security mission since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first proposed the Gaza pullout in February. The fact that chiefs of rival security agencies travelled together suggested that the Palestinians are starting to respond to meet Egypt’s demands of reform of the unwieldy security branches.

Earlier this week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman discussed the planned Gaza pullout with Arafat and other officials in the West Bank.

Israel is seeking to weaken Palestinian militant groups in Gaza ahead of the withdrawal. The latest operation, aimed at halting Palestinian mortar and rocket fire at Israeli targets, lasted four days and ended at daybreak today.

Troops had patrolled around the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and the outskirts of the sprawling Jebaliya refugee camp, from where Palestinian militants frequently fire rockets at Jewish settlements and Israeli border towns.

The army said troops had left built-up areas but were still in strategic points away from population centres.

Tanks taking part in the operation chewed up the main north Gaza road with their tracks and made several side roads to major neighbourhoods impassable in places.

Some water pipes, electricity poles and telephone wires in the area were also destroyed, depriving about 130,000 residents of basic services, said Adel Hammoudeh, the mayor of Beit Lahiya.

Municipal officials said 22 homes, 10 shops and five factories were destroyed in the two towns and the refugee camp. Several public buildings, including the Beit Lahiya police station, the fire department and a rehabilitation centre for the handicapped, were also razed, the mayor said.

Beit Lahiya resident Salem Mustafa, 40, a taxi driver, lost a new one-story home he had moved into two weeks ago, along with his parents, wife and six children, ages 1 to 14.

He said he was at home with his family on Friday, trapped by intense gunfire, when the walls began shaking. “And then, out of nowhere, one of the walls of the house collapsed, the kitchen wall started to collapse,” he said.

He said the family fled under fire, and that within minutes an army bulldozer had demolished the house. Mustafa said soldiers had told him at the beginning of the raid that they might have to destroy the house, located at the entrance to Beit Lahiya, for security reasons.

The Israeli military said troops demolished three buildings used by Palestinian militants to manufacture weapons, and several others from which anti-tank missiles were fired. They said damage to infrastructure was caused by heavy exchanges of fire between troops and militants.