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BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from this Palestinian town today, after tearing up roads, flattening strawberry greenhouses and knocking down walls in what residents said was the most devastating raid in four years of fighting.
The two-day foray into Beit Lahiya was part of a major Israeli military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, now in its third week. As part of the latest fighting, five Palestinian militants and an elderly civilian were killed in three separate missile strikes, starting Wednesday evening.
Since the Sept. 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.
Israel says the campaign is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns. Palestinians say much of the destruction is wanton.
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 wrote today that while an offensive might appease Israeli public opinion, it would not stop rocket fire.
For the past two weeks, hundreds of armored vehicles have patrolled a 5-mile stretch of northern Gaza, including the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jebaliya refugee camp. At times, tanks remained on the outskirts, at times they moved deep into densely populated areas.
This morning, armored vehicles pulled back to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya after a two-day operation that left a wide path of destruction. The demolitions focused on outlying farms, the center of town and old Beit Lahiya.
The army said the goal of the raid was to prevent militants from launching rockets, and that trees, farm buildings and other structures were destroyed to deprive them of cover. With tanks moving through narrow alleys, some of the destruction was unintentional, the army said.
Dozens of houses in Beit Lahiya were badly damaged and are no longer safe to live in. Armored vehicles tore up roads, destroyed water and sewage pipes and knocked down electricity poles.
Palestinian author Omar Khalil Omar, a Beit Lahiya resident, said two houses belonging to his family were damaged, and two cars crushed. He said his mother's grave, on a family plot near his home, was torn up.
"I don't know what threat my mother's grave could pose to the state of Israel," Omar said. "They simply want to uproot us from here, whether we are alive or dead. But the grave will stay and we will stay."
Beit Lahiya has been raided by the army in the past, but residents said the destruction they found today was far worse than in previous incursions.
For many of the 30,000 residents, the loss of olive trees hurt most.
"My father planted this farm when he was a child," said farmer Salim Omar, 70, holding a broken olive branch near his 450 uprooted trees. "Why did they do this? It's a holy tree, mentioned in our holy book and their book as well. ... I wish I had died before I saw this."
As part of the fighting, five Palestinian militants and a 70-year-old man were killed in three separate missile strikes, starting late Wednesday.
The first two strikes hit the Jebaliya camp, killing three Hamas militants. The Israeli military said in both cases, pilots targeted militants planting explosives.
In the southern Gaza Strip, about 20 Israeli tanks moved into the Rafah refugee camp on the Egyptian border. Bulldozers destroyed at least 32 homes and damaged 10, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which aids refugees. About 300 Palestinians were made homeless, U.N. aid officials said.
During today's operation, helicopters fired missiles at Rafah, killing two militants and an elderly man, hospital officials said. Seven Palestinians were wounded.
The military said it was a "routine" operation to remove cover for Palestinian gunmen. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, meanwhile, said Palestinian security forces are unable to stop the spreading chaos in the West Bank and Gaza.
Qureia said an attempt, apparently by Palestinian dissidents, to kill Gaza security chief Moussa Arafat with a car bomb Tuesday was "very dangerous." Arafat, an unpopular relative of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was unharmed.
Qureia said the car bombing fit into a pattern of chaos that has included kidnappings of Palestinians and foreigners and other assassination attempts.
"Unfortunately, the security services couldn't stop it," he said. "All these acts are bad phenomena and reflect negatively on the internal Palestinian situation."
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