IDF: Latest Rafah incursion 'could last several days' (+2 others)

This'll probably get thrown down to the I/P pit quick, but it's news, a serious thing, and would perhaps pass without notice.

Mods:--no need to move it down there if something is to be done to this thread, just lock/delete this later--or better, just leave it up here unless there's an ugly disturbance, but that's a crazy heresy, no?--, as the articles in this are already in threads down there. I just wanted to make it known and available to those who would have otherwise missed it, for that's not a commonly visited place.

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Israeli tanks return to torment Rafah
Tuesday 14 October 2003

At least three Palestinians are reported hurt, one of them seriously, in the latest invasion of Rafah refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli tanks and soldiers launched the new assault early Tuesday - hours after a damning human rights report condemned previous raids on the same refugee camp.

The invasion force consists of about 40 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunships.

Occupation forces had only just left Rafah on Monday after a three-day attack that killed eight Palestinians and left more than 1000 homeless last week.

But sunrise on Tuesday saw the return of an even larger attack force with the means to destroy many more homes and lives.

"Israeli helicopters opened fire on the area and soldiers took up rooftop positions on high buildings,” said Aljazeera's correspondent.

Dr Ali Musa, the head of Rafah hospital, told AFP that among
the injured was a 12-year-old boy who was in serious condition after being struck by shrapnel from a tank shell.

Residents said that water and electricity supplies were cut off and that three houses had been demolished.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B6E27ADF-9E5B-45CD-A4CD-403A3BCF3D39.htm

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Last Update: 14/10/2003 11:59
IDF: Latest Rafah incursion 'could last several days'
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

Dozens of armored Israel Defense Forces vehicles reentered the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday morning, in the latest operation to uncover arms-smuggling tunnels.

Military sources confirmed that an operation was underway, saying it was a continuation of the three-day mission that began Friday. Six Palestinians were injured in the first hours of the operation, Palestinian hospital sources said.

A senior IDF officer in the Gaza Strip told Army Radio that this new stage of the operation – officially referred to a 'Root Canal 2' – could last several days. The officer added that there were 12 known
tunnels in operation.

--snip--

Eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed during the 72-hour operation that began early Friday morning. Some 100 houses were destroyed, leaving about 2,000 people homeless, according to assessments by International aid organizations and UNRWA officials.

The commander of the Givati brigade in the region, Colonel Eyal Eisenberg, denied Tuesday charges that the IDF was being heavy-handed in its efforts to uncover tunnels, and that a disproportionate amount of damage was being cause.

"I want people to ask how many houses we have not demolished," he told Army Radio, "not how many we have. I believe that the IDF's actions have been entirely moral, and that our behavior has been above and beyond that of any other army in the world."

--snip--

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/349442.html

"moral" :eyes:

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that 'moral' aspect is described in another Haaretz piece:

--snip--

At the opening stage of the operation, 8-year-old Ibrahim Krinawi was killed. Ibrahim, whose house was in the first row facing the
border, was the youngest of five children. His father Ahmed said the family was in the house when the operation began. They were going to leave but the bulldozer got there before they were able to do so. He said the bulldozer began tearing down a wall of the house, and he and his children went outside to stop it. At this point, a single shot hit Ibrahim in the right side of his chest and he collapsed. His father called an ambulance. As Ibrahim's brother Ayad told it, "at the beginning, he was conscious and yelling that it was hurting him terribly and for us to save him. Then he began to bleed and he begged us to take the bullet out but we couldn't do anything." The father said a Palestinian ambulance stopped a few hundred meters from the house but could not come any closer. Finally, family members carried Ibrahim to the ambulance. An hour later, he died at a makeshift clinic.

Twelve-year-old Sami Salah was also killed during the operation in one of the alleys near Jamal Yussuf's home. Sami's uncle said his
nephew was shot in the head by an IDF sharpshooter about an hour after the operation began. He died immediately.

Rafah's single high school for the sciences, a new facility, now serves as a shelter for some 150 residents made homeless by the operation. Razik Al-Abasi, also from Yabneh, lives in a building that was home to six brothers and their families, 43 people in all. "We heard the noise of the tanks and the bulldozers, and saw the projectors pointed in our direction," he said. "At a certain point, we understood that half the house had been destroyed and the other half was going to fall down, so we ran out with all the children. We looked for a place to rent but we couldn't even find a storeroom." Al-Abasi, like other residents of the camps who sought shelter at the school, are able to stay in a classroom during the night but he said "except for the clothes on our back, we have nothing, no food for the children and no schoolbags." When he returned home after the operation began he discovered that the house had been completely demolished.

Other families are being housed in various municipal buildings throughout Rafah until other quarters can be found. UNRWA sources said they will try to give $500 to each family that lost their home, but this will not help much.

Damage has also been done to the city's already failing sewage system. Phone, electricity, and water lines are totally inoperative.

--snip--

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/349478.html

:kick: