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MIDEAST: Palestinians Brace for More Destruction
By Ferry Biedermann
RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 17, 2004 (IPS) - More and more Palestinians are facing
homelessness after the fighting last week.
Palestinian families could be seen fleeing their homes in Rafah Sunday in
anticipation of further Israeli military action. The area close to the Egypt border
bears the marks of the fighting and widespread house demolitions last week
after Islamic Jihad fighters destroyed an Israeli armoured vehicle.
The Israeli High Court lifted a temporary stay order Sunday against
demolitions. At the weekly cabinet session defence minister Shaul Mofaz and
defence chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon vowed to intensify the fighting in the Gaza
Strip.
Mofaz said Israel had to prevent smuggling of arms from Egypt into the Strip
and that he would "create a new reality" along the border. Israel had kept control
over a narrow strip that it calls the Philadelphi route after it withdrew from Rafah
in 1994 under the Oslo accords. The area has been a focus of fighting over the
last three-and-a-half years.
Israel would "deepen the fighting" in Gaza in order to deal with the militants in
the strip, Mofaz said. This was taken by many in Rafah to imply that Mofaz
wanted to create an expanded buffer zone along the border at the expense of
Palestinian homes in Rafah.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell voiced rare criticism of Israeli actions
during a visit to Jordan. "We know that Israel has a right for self-defence but the
kind of action they are taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes,
we oppose," he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia called on his people not to react to
Israeli actions, so as not to give the army a pretext to expand its operations.
On Saturday some 150,000 Israelis had gathered in Tel-Aviv to ask that their
country withdraw from Gaza and start negotiating with the Palestinian Authority.
Many commentators linked the high number of demonstrators to the flare-up of
the fighting in Gaza last week in which 14 Israelis and some 30 Palestinians
died.
There is widespread fear of further escalation in Rafah. A spokesman for the
Rafah governorate said he expected that the Israeli army would demolish a
further 1,000 to 1,200 homes in the area, after already destroying about 1,000
during the current Intifadah.
The family of Abed Majed Al-Shamale was gathered outside their house in
Rafah's Block O neighbourhood Sunday afternoon, ready to move out. All their
belongings were loaded onto a trailer hitched behind a small tractor.
"We heard this morning at ten about the High Court decision and we decided
to leave," said Abu Shamale. "It is better to escape now than lose everything."
He was planning to store his furniture at a friend's place but had no idea
where he was going to stay over the next few days.
During the fighting last week some 88 houses were destroyed in Rafah and
about a thousand people were made homeless, according to Palestinian
sources and the United Nations. Some of them have found temporary shelter in
a school, others in an improvised camp. Others like Fathieh 'Sdude have taken
shelter in the damaged al-Nurayn mosque in Block O.
The family had fled their home Wednesday when they heard Israeli bulldozers
operating in the area. A few hours later there was a huge explosion when
fighters from the Islamic Jihad blew up the Israeli armoured personnel carrier.
"It was like an earthquake," said a neighbour. The 'Sdude family came back to
find their house damaged by the blast. They had to flee when the army started
attacking the area "with helicopters, tanks and machine guns."
Their home was heavily damaged. Several walls are missing. The house was
then stripped empty by looters, "kids from the neighbourhood," said 'Sdude.
Even the sinks are gone.
"We don't have anything left, we couldn't take anything with us," said 'Sdude.
"We only have the clothes on our backs. I was doing the laundry when we fled."
Next to the kitchen a checked shirt flapped in the wind. The only bits of
furniture left were two old ceiling fans. On a back wall, posters of Hamas leaders
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi who were killed by Israel, were
the only decoration.
The family did not blame the fighters of the Islamic Jihad for the loss of their
house. "It would have happened anyway," said a son. "The Jihad is a legitimate
resistance group. The army was already destroying houses in the area when
they attacked. Were they supposed to do nothing?"
The fighting and the demolitions took a heavy toll also in the Gishta
neighbourhood next to Block O. Ashraf Gishta was killed there Friday morning
when he went to retrieve some of his belongings moments before it was
demolished, his family and an eyewitness recounted.
He was shot by snipers, said a cousin Hossam Gisht. Ashraf was inside the
house carrying an axe to "cut cables" when the tanks approached. Later
Ashraf's body was found with three bullet wounds a small distance from the
demolished house, Hossam says.
Some families who lost their home in the Gishta area now live in tents
provided by the Red Cross next to the Salaam mosque in Rafah. They squatted
in the sand in confusion, wondering how long they would have to live like that.
Ali Sha'er, 41, said he worked for the Palestinian Authority but his salary was
not nearly enough to feed his family and build a house as well.
"You are still one of the lucky few," another man said. "Most people who have
lost their homes don't have any income at all." (END)
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