MIDDLE EAST CRISIS
We found Kalashnikovs in almost every house, say Israeli soldiers
Travelling with the IDF, Anshel Pfeffer reports from a shattered refugee camp in Gaza City
Israeli soldiers return to southern Israel after operations in Gaza
CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTYIMAGES
On Tuesday there was the first bout of heavy weather this winter in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. As night descended over Gaza City — which for weeks now has been without electricity — lightning from a storm over the Mediterranean, interspersed with flashes of artillery explosions, lit up the destroyed streets of al-Shati, one of the Gaza’s largest refugee camps, located on the coast.
“The explosions are now nearly all ours,” said a sergeant of the 931st Battalion of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) with which The Times is embedded. While Israeli soldiers operating inside Gaza remain on constant lookout for missile ambushes and sniper attacks by Hamas, with the fighting on the ground in Gaza now in its third week, Israeli troops
