Hamas rising from the ashes

IT LOOKS like the photograph of a bombed-out city in the second world war. A 200-yard-wide swathe of gouged mud, crushed stone and blasted skeletons of houses now defines the Gaza Strip's southern border with Egypt. It was once Block L of the Yebna refugee camp in the town of Rafah. Last month the Israeli army destroyed 150 homes there to unearth arms-smuggling tunnels. Palestinians say it was the final act to “cleanse” them from an area that has long been one of the hottest front lines in their long war with Israel.