02/09/2004 Israel Defense Forces soldiers discovered a tunnel north of the Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom on Thursday, which Palestinians were apparently planning to use to carry out a terror attack in the area. The tunnel, which was more than 10 meters deep, could have been used to hide weapons as well as terrorists planning to infiltrate the settlement to carry out attacks. Troops found the tunnel beneath a house in Dir al-Balah, some 500 meters from Kfar Darom. The Palestinians may have been planning to carry out the planned attack while the settlement was being evacuated under the disengagement plan, IDF Colonel Eyal Zamir, who commanded the troops who discovered the tunnel, said Thursday. Speaking to Army Radio, he said that the amount of attacks in Gaza was increasing as the planned disengagement approaches. Hamas activists used a similar method for an attack in June, when they blew up the IDF’s Orhan base at the Gush Katif junction in Gaza by digging a tunnel under it and detonating explosives packed inside. 2 soldiers, 5 Palestinians hurt in Gaza demolitions Two IDF soldiers and five Palestinians were wounded early Thursday during an overnight operation in which troops blew up two five-story apartment buildings in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Khan Yunis.
The soldiers were lightly wounded, and the condition of the Palestinians was not known. The troops withdrew by daybreak. Palestinian gunmen used the abandoned buildings for cover when they fired at Gaza settlements, the IDF said. The army also said that soldiers evacuated 6,000 residents of eight multiple-story apartment buildings nearby to ensure that they wouldn’t be hurt when troops blew up the targeted buildings. The buildings overlook the neighboring settlement of Neveh Dekalim. The demolitions rendered dozens of Palestinians homeless. Colonel Yehoshua Rinski, commander of the operation, said the raid was aimed at stopping area militants from firing mortar bombs at nearby settlements. Hours earlier, gunmen fired three bombs at Neve Dekalim, a frequent target of such attacks. Ten Israeli civilians and soldiers were wounded in dozens of attacks from the destroyed buildings in recent days, the IDF said. „The situation that the Palestinians use urban places where their civilians live and shoot towards our settlements cannot be tolerated,” Rinski said. BPI-info
