Gaza: Israeli incursion leaves fear and loathing

Atatrah (Gaza), Jul 9: For two days, Rina al-Adjouri, her mother, sister and four other women cowered in the basement as Israeli forces pounded their home from one side and Palestinian militants hid out on the other.

Israeli tanks blasted several shells through the three-storey home, leaving gaping holes, and troops riddled one side of the building with so many rounds of machinegun fire that it looked as if it had survived a war.

The other side of the year-old house was untouched, the white-painted exterior unsullied by bullet marks. But inside, there was near-complete destruction.

''We were caught right in the middle,'' said Rina, a 19-year-old university student, standing amid a mass of rubble, bullet-holed beds and strewn glass where she and the others, including her sisters Fatma, 18, and Naima, 9, were trapped.

''It was absolutely terrifying.'' Israeli troops pulled out of Atatrah and other parts of the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, three days after they entered, following furious clashes. At least 40 Palestinians, several of them civilians, and one Israeli soldier were killed.

The operation, designed to stop rocket fire and pressure militants to release a kidnapped soldier, left behind a wave of destruction and fuelled already intense popular anger.

During their 48-hour siege, the women of the Adjouri house found themselves stuck without food or water, so Rina and Fatma crept upstairs during what they thought was a pause in the fighting to get some things from the fridge.

''The moment I touched it, the Israelis fired,'' Rina said, showing three rounds from a sniper's rifle that had pierced the appliance. ''They could obviously see me, but if they could see me, they could also see that I'm a girl,'' she said.

Bullets had pierced pictures of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on the walls of Naima's room, the bright curtains were riddled with gunfire and the bathroom was smashed to pieces.

''It's not good,'' said the girl quietly. ''I was downstairs for two days. I was so scared.''

ISRAELIS LEAVE WINE

Down the street, the house and livelihood of Mohammed Erhim were also devastated by the Israeli incursion.

Tanks pulled up to his house on Wednesday night, destroying two cars, killing several prized Syrian goats and damaging two water trucks that his business relies on, he said.

''They forced all of us to squeeze into one room while they made themselves comfortable in the rest of the house,'' said Erhim, saying 20 people were only sparingly allowed to go to the bathroom, so that the room ended up stinking of urine.

During the fighting, Erhim said that whenever a Palestinian was killed he could hear the Israelis cheering and the sound of a toast being drunk. When the troops pulled out on Friday night, they left a bottle of Israeli wine and a pile of sandwiches.

''This is real terrorism, this is the terrorism of the state,'' he said, angered particularly at the slaughter of the goats. ''Those goats are priceless for me. It is a hobby I had.

They killed my hobby and they killed my business.'' For Salah al-Adjouri, the father of the first household, the three-day incursion also destroyed a lifetime's work. He has already spent tens of thousands of dollars on his home and has 40,000 dollars more left to pay, but now all he has is a gutted ruin.

''They are terrorists, what can I say,'' said the 53-year-old, a soldier employed by the Palestinian Authority.

''All this makes the militants angrier. How can I tell my kids not to hate the Israelis when they see what they've done?'' Asked if he had any insurance, he looked to the skies and held his hands up in despair. ''God is our insurance,'' he said.

REUTERS