'This is for Sheikh Yassin'
ARNON REGULAR
Ha'artez, 11 May 2004
Gaza City -- An armed Hamas member stood in an alleyway in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza yesterday, holding a bag that he said contained human remains from the armored personnel carrier blown up yesterday.
Shockingly, he proceeded to pull a finger out of the bag and shouted: "This is for Sheikh Yassin, and for the rest you'll pay in liberated prisoners."
After that he turned to deal with tripods that held improvised antitank missiles pointing toward the main road where Israel Defense Forces soldiers were situated. The armed man, hiding in a stairwell, held an electronic cable attached to the missile's firing appartus, and a radio, waiting for a lookout to tell him when to shoot the missile at the road. His friends were also waiting, peeking out from time to time to check if the army had changed its position.
But more than they were on the lookout, it seemed like the various organizations were busy boasting and taking credit for blast, in which six soldiers were killed. "We do the blowing up and they take the credit," said a masked armed Palestinian through gritted teeth, a green Hamas band around his head. The armed man was standing with a group of Hamas members, some 500 meters from where the armored personnel carrier was blown up. He was criticizing a group of yellow headbanded Islamic Jihad members, one of whom was being interviewed by al-Huriyyeh, the local radio station, saying that Islamic Jihad had blown up the APC.
Throughout yesterday, groups of four or five armed men from all the organizations, including Fatah, wandered the streets near the site of the explosion, seeking to take credit for the attack that killed more soldiers at one time than any other since the beginning of the intifada.
It seemed like everyone in the neighborhood had a piece of metal they claimed came from the APC, or a piece of human remains that they said belonged to the soldiers.
Dozens of such groups surrounded IDF forces on the north, east, and west, as the soldiers attempted to locate the bodies. It was difficult to avoid the impression that this was a well-organized and coordinated urban guerrilla force. One youth proudly showed off his Dragonov sniper's rifle, which looked taller than he was. He was part of a group of armed men, each of whom had a job. He was the sharpshooter, next to him was another armed man holding a rocket propelled grenade ready to fire, while another carried a pack of explosives on his back, and another explosive in his hand, ready for detonation.
The armed men said the organizations' lookouts watching the Netzarim area, from where the IDF force came, warned of the beginning of the operation before it started. They said that explosives and antitank missiles were ready, and within minutes armed men arrived to meet the IDF force. While the group was talking, one of them, who was listening to the al-Huriyyeh broadcast on a transistor, shouted that helicopters were seen over the Zeitoun neighborhood and the station was warning the muqawamah, a general name for the members of all the organizations, to take cover. Shortly thereafter, a helicopter shot a missile at a car in nearby Sajaiyeh, killing an 18-year-old Palestinian.
Ibrahim Abu Atta, 28, works in the Star soft drink plant near where the APC was blown up. He said he had stayed at work late Monday night, but began to worry when he heard explosions from the metal workshop belonging to the Dula family, where the IDF was blowing up the machinery. The Zeitoun neighborhood is the center for Gaza's light industry, including a number of metal workshops where Qassam rockets are produced.
Abu Atta said that he took advantage of a lull in the shooting between the soldiers and the armed Palestinians and ran out of the plant to a house a few dozen meters away. He knocked on the door and begged to be let in. "I went into the house and I saw the wife and children hiding in the kitchen in the back. The husband and I stood near the balcony window and tried to understand what was going on outside." Abu Atta said that about an hour later, when the sun came up, the two men, whose nerves were frayed, heard a loud explosion. "At first we thought a shell had been fired but in three seconds the whole balcony filled with smoke and a sharp smell came up from the street. A minute later we saw the APC standing beneath the house. We thought the APC had fired but then we saw it wasn't moving."
Abu Atta said that a few minutes later more tanks and APCs came and then he understood that something had happened. "When it got completely light, we saw a huge hole in the road and the street was full of blackened metal. We saw the motor and the whole street was filled with blood."
Only in the afternoon was Abu Atta able to leave the house where he had taken shelter, in the area between the soldiers who were looking for bodies and the armed Palestinians shooting at them.
Walid Abu Shenab, 20, a laborer in the Dula family factory that was blown up by the IDF, said there were 20 machines in the factory that worked around the clock. He said the factory had been destroyed a year ago by the IDF but had been rebuilt and began operating about a month ago.