Gaza homes shattered by Israeli-Palestinian battle

GAZA (Reuters) -- There were carpets and couches in the sitting rooms, spice racks in the kitchens, and children's toys in the bedrooms.

But it didn't need a closer look to see these were no ordinary blocks of apartments for Palestinian families, but the scorched wreckage of the latest battle in a spasm of Israeli-Palestinian violence which has killed 50 people in six days.

The buildings' location is undeniably bad, right next door to an Israeli army outpost fortified with concrete blocks and sandbags.

The street address inspires little confidence. Burj Towers are at a crossroads in Gaza near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, an intersection which Palestinians refer to as "Martyrs' Junction."

The Nazi swastikas spray-painted on the outside walls of the four-story buildings and the military camouflage uniforms which still hang in some closets suggest an uneasy relationship with neighbors. To say the least.

There is further evidence in the shattered windows of Apartment 202, its toilet seat and refrigerator melted and its charred thresholds still hot to the touch Tuesday from an Israeli attack Monday, the fifth day of the worst fighting between the sides since 1996.

Children pick up from the floors fragments imprinted with the words "guided missile."

"I thought I would die. I had no weapons, nothing. So I just took cover and smoked," said a Palestinian man who said he was afraid to give his name but insisted he was in the building during the fierce clashes.

Officials from both sides had hoped to avoid a repeat at the Gaza flashpoint of the fighting that has raged there since late last week.

But clashes arose yet again when hundreds of Palestinians, many of them teenagers, pounded the Israeli outpost with rocks and glass bottles in rage they say was sparked by a visit by an Israeli right-wing Likud party member Ariel Sharon to a holy Islamic site, Al-Aqsa mosque, in Jerusalem Thursday.

They also say they are avenging the death of their "martyrs," some of them boys such as 12-year-old Mohammad al-Durra, who was shot dead in his father's arms Saturday at the junction.

Israeli and Palestinian forces raised the stakes of the fray of tear gas and rubber bullets Monday when they started slamming away at each other with machine guns. Israeli helicopters then moved in to pound a nearby Palestinian military camp.

Smoke gushed from the windows of the apartment block's towers. Firing could be heard coming from within. At the end of the day, the two bullet-riddled buildings had scorch marks around the window frames and a gaping cavity where part of the third floor once was.

Palestinians Tuesday struggled to pass huge bedroom dressers through the windows, dragged out sacks of clothes, and staggered under the weight of appliances.

"Next time they will kill us," said a Palestinian woman as she hauled a television set through olive groves as far away as she could get.

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