'When we came back they had destroyed all the houses'
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 06:00AM
TheSpook
The Israeli general who commanded the destruction of the only Jewish
settlement in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt recently
offered Ariel Sharon advice on how to carry out his pledge to remove
settlers from the Gaza strip. "Evicting someone from the home they've
lived in for 20 years isn't a simple matter," wrote Brigadier General
Obed Tira. "To remove a family from its home is embarrassing and
difficult, and that is why the removal needs to be done with a lot of
love and a lot of wisdom." The soldiers who arrived outside the home of
Ghalia Abu Radwan, her octogenarian parents, blind siblings and
assortment of children in Khan Yunis in the middle of the night showed
no love, and, if they were embarrassed, there was no way to know it
because they were hidden behind the armour of their bulldozers and
tanks... While Mr Sharon agonises over how to draw 7,500 Jewish
settlers out of Israel's Gaza colonies - offering hundreds of thousands
of dollars in compensation to each family - the army has already
bulldozed close to 9,000 Palestinians from their homes in the Gaza
strip this year alone. Most got no more than a few minutes notice to
get out and lost all but the possessions they could hurriedly bundle
together. [more ]
Pictured above:
A Palestinian man sits with his son on top of the rubble of his
destroyed house in the northern Gaza
Street refugee camp of Jabalia. [more ]
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