Israeli pullback in part of Gaza, time to asses the damage

[Don Rizzle]

The Israeli army has withdrawn from some parts of the Gaza Strip it has been holding under tight control for several weeks.
It is not yet clear how extensive the pull-back has been or whether it will be permanent.

The army moved into the area around the northern town of Beit Hanoun to try to stop Palestinian fighters firing rockets into Israel.

At least four Palestinians were killed in Gaza Strip clashes on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says it is evacuating all its non-essential foreign staff from the Gaza Strip as Israel continues operations in northern Gaza.

Army 'redeploying'

The BBC's Alan Johnston, in Gaza, says that for the people of Beit Hanoun Thursday has been a day to assess the damage that the Israeli army has done here.

A number of roads through the town have been torn up by tanks and bulldozers have damaged buildings all down one of the main streets.

A factory on the edge of town has been wrecked and surrounding Beit Hanoun huge tracts of farmland, orchards and vineyards have been bulldozed.

The Israeli army incursion began after one of the missiles killed two civilians in the town of Sderot, which lies in Israel just a few kilometres from Gaza's perimeter.

But the advance into the strip failed to halt the attacks and rockets continued to be fired at Sderot on an almost daily basis.

The militants regard such attacks as part of their struggle to end Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip, our correspondent says.

UN staff pull out of camp

Also on Wednesday, Israeli tanks moved to the entrance of the Jabaliya refugee camp - one of the largest in the area with about 45,000 people.

Johan Eriksson, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said that reports that Israeli forces had moved to the edge of the camp meant there was no longer a safe route between Gaza City and the Erez crossing point into Israel.

He said 19 staff would now be relocated to Jordan - with only nine foreign workers left in Gaza.

Unrwa has always had its headquarters in Gaza, but the worsening security situation here in recent weeks has made its work harder, says our correspondent.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3537868.stm