L ike the cursed villages of some ancient fables, Huj was erased one summer afternoon, its mud-brick huts, its water-wheel well , and its 150-odd families disappearing into the sands. Later, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli g eneral who served as the country’s p rime m inister from 2001 to 2006, purchased the land to build Havat Shikmim, or Sycamore Ranch, so named for the trees that grew wild there . The remnants of the village mosque, one visitor recorded, were converted into a stable for the g eneral’s thoroughbred horses.

Two years ago on Tuesday, under the cover of a barrage of rockets, 41 Palestinian terrorists tore through the fencing separating Gaza from the land that was once Huj, killing dozens of people , most of them civilians. The y occ

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