GAZA, July 12 (IslamOnline.net) - The Israeli occupation forces raided early Monday, July 12, a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, demolishing dozens of homes, including one over the head of its elderly, handicapped Palestinian resident who was instantly killed.

“The Israeli troops and bulldozers did not give Ibrahim Khalafallah, 75, a chance to leave his house, ignored the cries of his family members, pulled down the house over his head, killing him instantly,” witnesses told IslamOnline.net.

The Israeli military, for their part, claimed they thought Khalfallah's house was abandoned when they started demolishing it.

At least 30 Palestinian homes were completely destroyed when some 40 Israeli tanks, military vehicles and armored bulldozers swept the Khan Younis refugee camp in the early hours of Monday.

IOL Correspondent in the camp listened to eyewitnesses and survivors recalling the “moments of horror” when most of them were awakened by the sound of heavy gun fire and tank shells.

“Bulldozers then finished the job of tearing down houses while residents were doing their best to save their souls and their children or elderly. Over 30 families have now joined the long queue of homeless in the narrow alleys of the camp,” witnesses said.

The Israeli occupation sources always claim that the houses they destroy on daily basis are mostly abandoned or used by Palestinian resistance fighters. Reports of UN agencies working on the occupied Palestinian lands have refuted Israeli claims though.

The Palestinians say that the only crime they commit is that Israeli settlements were erected randomly on their lands in Gaza and the West Bank, making them like sitting ducks for Israeli bulldozers which usually appear unexpectedly at night or dawn and give little or no time for evacuations.

In Monday’s demolishing raid, the Israelis, however, exceeded all their past excessiveness and committed an act beyond imagination.

Khalafallah’s house was shelled by tanks before bulldozers went on to tear it down completely.

“My husband and I were asleep, not aware of what was going on. We then woke up at the sound of bulldozers approaching. I looked out of our window, saw the Israeli bulldozers demolishing the house next to ours,” a devastated Aydah Khalaf, wife of Khalafallah, told IOL through her tears.

“I did not know what to do. I started screaming out at the strength of my lungs but no one was there. Our neighbors had all rushed out of their homes when the Israeli troops started their sweep. I felt so helpless. My husband was handicapped. I am too old to carry him out of the house.

“I went out of the house to seek help to move him out. I came across our daughter who is married and lives nearby, along with some neighbors. When we returned, the bulldozer had already started pulling the house down.

Traces of Khalafallah's blood among the rubble of his house

“I reached the front door, screamed so that the Israeli soldiers would hear me and stop demolishing the house. A soldier came out of his tank, told us to quickly get out of the way or we would get killed.

“I told him my husband was still in there and we just needed minutes to get him out. He did not listen, but rather started shooting in our direction and waved to the bulldozer driver to carry on,” the 65-year-old woman could not go on. She was apparently on the verge of losing her senses.

Another 25-year-old Palestinian stepped in to complete the horrible experience.

“We waited nervously till the Israelis finished their dirty job (demolishing the house). After withdrawing, I, along with a group of youth, hurried to the rubble of the house, started searching only to find his body still on the bed completely torn apart,” Nael Hamdan told IOL.

“While trying to pull his remains out of the rubble, the Israeli soldiers started shooting at our direction again.”

Fury could not be missed at the faces of Palestinians at the site of the destroyed houses. However, no words revealing their vulnerability and weakness came out of their mouths while sitting on the rubble of their demolished homes.

Typical Israeli Reaction

It may take the Palestinians years to build a house, but it takes an Israeli bulldozer only seconds to turn it into rubble

In a typical approach, the Israeli military sources at first claimed that the buildings destroyed were used as cover by Palestinian resistance activists who had launched attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the area and most had been "abandoned", according to the BBC News Online.

Khalafallah’s daughter, Mona, told the BBC that she rushed out into the darkness to plead for more time to get her father out of the house but the soldiers did not listen to her.

Later, the Israeli army said it would investigate the incident.