Israeli strike desolates 1,500 Palestinians

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Israeli strike desolates 1,500 Palestinians

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Israel's three-day military operation in a Gaza Strip refugee camp left about 1,500 Palestinians homeless, the largest demolition of houses in a Gaza raid in three years of fighting, UN officials said yesterday.

In the West Bank, Yasser Arafat appointed a senior official from the ruling Fatah party as acting security chief, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. The appointment of Hakam Balawi was a new blow to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, who had supported another candidate.

Qurei has told Fatah he wants to quit once the term of his temporary government expires in about three weeks because of sharp disagreements with Arafat. However, with the deadline three weeks off, there is still time to settle their differences, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli troops withdrew from the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border on Sunday, after a three-day operation the military said was aimed at finding and destroying weapons smuggling tunnels. Three tunnels were shut down.

The raid, the biggest in Gaza in six months, was accompanied by heavy fighting between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen. Eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed, and dozens were wounded.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for refugees, said yesterday that about 1,500 Palestinians were left homeless in the raid, the largest-scale demolition of houses in a single operation in Gaza in the past three years of fighting.

" We have had very, very significant damage to the refugee camp," said Peter Hansen, commissioner-general of UNRWA, after inspecting the damage on Sunday. "Many houses, maybe as many as 120, have been completely demolished."

Another 70 houses were damaged, said Saed Zoarub, the mayor of the town of Rafah next to the camp.

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