Gaza gets 180 minute respite to shop, bury the dead

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - After 12 days of non-stop Israeli bombing, Gaza got a break on Wednesday.

For 180 precious minutes, Israeli warplanes and tanks held their fire, giving 1.5 million shell-shocked residents of the coastal enclave a chance to check on family members, shop for essentials and bury their dead.

Ahmed Abu Kamel, a father of six who lives in the eastern part of the city, said he set out with a brief shopping list: food and milk. "What else can we do in three hours?" he asked.

A Gaza teacher who identified himself as Abu Youssef said he felt like a "prisoner on furlough."

Thousands of angry and frustrated mourners attended open-air funerals in the Jabalya refugee camp, where more than 40 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday when Israel shelled a U.N.-run school.

Some of the dead in Jabalya were buried together because the camp's main cemetery was full and it was too dangerous to look for plots elsewhere.

"Revenge! Revenge!" mourners chanted.

Israel's three-hour halt to "offensive" operations started exactly at 1 p.m. local (6 a.m. EST).