July 8, 2006

Before dawn, Israel withdraws troops fr. n. Gaza to just inside Israel’s border (saying its objectives there have been met, even though rocket fire fr. the area has been increasing; see 7/5), but declares that Operation Summer Rains is still ongoing and is not being scaled down. (Palestinians in Bayt Lahiya report at least 100 Palestinian homes heavily damaged or destroyed, 50 d. of agricultural land bulldozed since 7/3.) During the day, the IDF sends forces across the eastern Gaza border to search for roadside bombs and tunnels, engaging in heavy clashes with Palestinian gunmen nr. Qarni crossing, leaving 4 Palestinians dead (including at least 2 gunmen, 1 journalist), around 20 injured before pulling back across the Qarni crossing into the industrial estate late in the evening (barring the WFP fr. reaching warehouses there where it holds emergency food stocks for 160,000 Palestinians in the area). The IDF also makes air strikes on n. Gaza, destroying a main bridge and hitting a home outside Gaza City, killing a Palestinian woman,2 children, a 4th Palestinian nearby, and wounding 4 children inside the home; continues shelling and bulldozing areas around Rafah. UNRWA opens 2 schools in Rafah to house around 1,000 Palestinians who have heeded IDF calls to evacuate their homes nr. closed military zones around Dahaniyya airport. A Palestinian is killed in his Khan Yunis house when explosives he is handling detonate prematurely, also injuring 5 family mbrs. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Jenin r.c.; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Nablus, Ramallah. A Palestinian militant dies of injuries received earlier in Bayt Lahiya. In Israel, dual Israeli-Canadian citizen Ghazi Falah, a geography prof. at University of Akron in Ohio, is arrested on charges of spying for Hizballah and Iran. (AP, PCHR, WP 7/8; NYT, WP, WT 7/9; NYT 7/10; PCHR 7/13; WT 7/27)