May 19, 2004
Children among 20 dead as Israeli army begins huge crackdown on Rafah
The Guardian (UK)

Israeli forces attacked Rafah refugee camp yesterday at the start of an operation to crush Palestinian armed resistance, before a planned fresh wave of house demolitions. The army killed at least 20 people, including children, one of the highest death tolls in a single day of the present intifada

Palestinian fighters vow to defend camp house by house

Chris McGreal in Rafah
Wednesday May 19, 2004
The Guardian

Israeli forces attacked Rafah refugee camp yesterday at the start of an operation to crush Palestinian armed resistance, before a planned fresh wave of house demolitions.

The army killed at least 20 people, including children, one of the highest death tolls in a single day of the present intifada, as it occupied the Tel al-Sultan district on the margins of the camp in preparation for an expected assault on the heart of Rafah.

Early this morning, Israeli armour also began moving into the west of the camp, near the al-Brazil area. Extended gunfire was heard but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Palestinians fear much greater bloodshed, however, once the Israelis attack areas of Rafah where resistance is usually stronger.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, buoyed by inflicting some of the worst casualties of the intifada on Israeli forces in Gaza last week with attacks on two armoured troop carriers, promised the people of Rafah they would defend the camp house by house with guns, mines and grenades.

"The occupiers will not advance and they will not destroy us. Last week we showed that the Israelis are not as invincible as they think they are," said an Islamic Jihad commander in the camp who declined to give his real name.

Many Palestinians were bracing themselves for a long and bloody battle yesterday. With more than 100 tanks and armoured vehicles and thousands of troops mobilised for Operation Rainbow, the Israeli press has likened it to the army's 2002 assault on the West Bank. Operation Defensive Shield resulted in widespread destruction and death in Jenin, Nablus and other cities two years ago.

Defence officials were quoted as saying the assault would last for several days as troops worked their way through the camp.

The army has sealed off Rafah from the rest of Gaza. Yesterday, most shops were closed and families living in the path of the expected Israeli advance moved into Rafah town, or sent their teenage sons away for fear they would be arrested or shot by the army.

Abed al-Karim Albalawi, 45, and his son, Ibrahim, were killed by an Israeli missile outside a Tel al-Sultan mosque. Mohammed Nawajha was wounded in the attack.

From his bed in Rafah hospital, he said: "I heard the missile, which left a lot of people dead and wounded. When we ran to help there was a second explosion and I was hit in the head, my legs, all over my body. I was lucky because my friends got me to an ambulance but many were left behind.

"I don't understand why they did it. The Israelis had already occupied the area, there was no resistance and people were going to the mosque to pray. They want to kill anyone."

The Israeli army said the missile attack was launched after men were spotted planting explosives near the mosque, and that at least 11 of those killed yesterday were fighters.

The army chief of staff, General Moshe Ya'alon, said the assault on Rafah is intended to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons under the border from Egypt.

However, Israeli security sources have told reporters that the army intends to eradicate Palestinian resistance in Rafah before resuming house demolitions to widen the Philadelphi road "security strip" along the Egyptian border.

The Israeli army has also made clear its desire to break the Islamist resistance groups before the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, pulls Jewish settlers and the army out of the Gaza strip. Military chiefs say they will not allow Gaza to become "Hamasland".

Earlier this week, Gen Ya'alon had also said that the army planned to destroy hundreds of Palestinian homes.

His change of tack came after some Israeli MPs and Amnesty International said that the mass destruction of civilian housing is a war crime, and amid strong American criticism of last Friday's demolition of about 200 homes in Rafah.

Tel al-Sultan lies at the far end of what used to be called the Beach Road before the Jewish settlements of Gush Qatif blocked Palestinian access to the sea. The road runs parallel to, and north of, the Philadelphi route along the Egyptian border. Between the two lies the refugee camp.

Palestinian officials expect the Israelis to advance up the Beach Road towards Rafah town, surrounding and clearing sections of the refugee camp as they go.

But while almost no resistance was encountered in Tel al-Sultan, if the Israelis do advance east they will swiftly enter areas of the camp where Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa brigades have previously put up heavy resistance to the army's raids.

Although the Israelis have described the assault as part of the war on terror, the popular view in Rafah is that it is a reprisal for last week's killing of 13 Israeli soldiers in Gaza in attacks that severely embarrassed the military leadership and fuelled domestic opposition to the settlements.

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