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Israel destroys six Palestinian buildings in Gaza

Donnerstag, 4. Januar 2001 / 13:56 Uhr
aktualisiert: 14:36 Uhr

Gaza - Israeli military bulldozers on Thursday destroyed six Palestinian buildings near the Jewish settlement of Dugit in the northern Gaza Strip and bulldozed agricultural fields, Voice of Palestine Radio reported.

The radio said the bulldozers flattened at least 100 acres of land cultivating vegetables. The destroyed buildings were water pumping installations which Palestinian farmers used for irrigating their fields.

Palestinian sources said Israeli soldiers destroyed the buildings and bulldozed the fields after armed Palestinians repeatedly in the past few weeks opened fire from behind the buildings and the vegetation in the fields at soldiers guarding the Dugit settlement.

The sources also told the radio that Israeli soldiers responded to different shooting attacks by firing several anti-tank missiles at Palestinian houses in the towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, causing severe damage to the buildings.

They added that Israel had sent more military reinforcements to the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, clashes between Israeli soldiers and rock-throwing Palestinians resumed near the Karni commercial passage between Israel and the Gaza Strip to protest the siege Israel imposed on several towns and cities in the Gaza Strip.

The siege, in its third day on Thursday, has badly paralyzed daily life in the Strip. Tanks and sand hills were blocking the entrances and the main roads leading to the four major cities in the Gaza Strip, preventing residents from leaving their towns to go to work.

The sieges effectively divided the 36-square-kilometre Gaza Strip into four separate zones, with Israeli military checkpoints preventing cars and residents from moving freely from one end to the other.

Voice of Palestine also reported that Israeli soldiers prevented a Palestinian ambulance and a truck loaded with oxygen canisters for medical use to pass a checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, in the southern Gaza Strip. The two vehicles were heading to Kahn Yunis to supply the town's Nasser hospital.(la/dpa)