Thu Aug 5, 6:35 AM ET
BEIT HANUN, Gaza (AFP) - The Israeli army left a trail of devastatation in Beit Hanun after a five-week siege and occupation of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites)'s traditional bread basket which failed to put a halt to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
Tanks and armoured vehicles began leaving the centre of town at first light and had completed their pullout four hours later, residents said. Troops had also withdrawn from around the nearby town of Jabaliya and its refugee camp.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that forces were being "redeployed" but gave no further details.
"This is a redeployment, not a withdrawal. Our operations to prevent the firing of Qassam (makeshift rockets) will continue," he told AFP.
Twenty Palestinians were killed during the course of the operation which originally saw tanks seal off the entrance to Beit Hanun.
They then later moved into the centre of the town and expanded their operations to include Jabaliya where three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had ordered troops into Beit Hanun, home to some 30,000 Palestinians, in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot which killed two people, including a three-year-old boy.
Residents said that much of Beit Hanun's infrastructure had been smashed in the course of the operation as troops demolished buildings, tore up roads and razed orange groves which had been used as cover for the firing of the Qassam rockets, named after the military wing of the Islamist group Hamas.
Palestinian housing minister Abdelrahman Hamad, who comes from Beit Hanun, said the latest incursion had caused some 40 million dollars worth of damage to homes, farms and general infrastructure.
He said that eight million acres of farmland in the northern Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed by the incursion.
"We cannot say that Israel has gone for good as they have redeployed to the hills to the east and can come back any time," he told AFP.
"They have left a huge amount of destruction. As you know Beit Hanun is the only real source of farming and citrus fruits in Gaza and now it's a desert."
Beit Hanun is renowned for its orange and lemon trees but hundreds could be seen smashed to pieces on a tour of the area on Thursday morning.
The tarmac on the roads had been churned into rubble by tanks which had effectively added two extra lanes by trundling down the pavements.
At least 30 houses were totally destroyed with residents trying to pick through the rubble to retrieve clothes and possessions.
Kifar al-Majdalawi was trying to retrieve some of her family's belongings from the wreckage while holding her three-month-old baby. It was the first time she had been able to venture outside for several weeks.
"I bought this just before they came and now look at it," she said tearfully as she retrieved a baby's shawl from underneath the rubble.
"This is inhuman. Just imagine how they (the Israelis) would react if we did this to them."
Majdalawi said that she had been forced to take shelter with relatives but even then the army had herded 10 people into one room while they took up positions in other parts of the house.
The operation failed to put a halt to the Qassam attacks, with army radio reporting Wednesday that more than 40 rockets had landed in Israeli territory since the start of the offensive.
Although both Mofaz and chief of staff Moshe Yaalon had publicly pledged that troops would continue to operate in the area until the rocket attacks ceased, reports have said that many officers favoured a pullout.
The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees cited the Israeli operation in Beit Hanun in ordering all foreign staff based in its Gaza City headquarters to temporarily move to Amman on Wednesday.
UNRWA commissioner general Peter Hansen and other staff came under Israeli fire in Beit Hanun last month after they had overseen a food delivery to besieged residents.
Although troops had left the area, a hot air balloon could be seen flying overhead with cameras directed towards the town.