From Occupied Palestine

Two magic phrases
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 19 May 2004

Rafah -- There are two magic phrases that the government uses to enlist soldiers, pilots and their families for the assault on Rafah: "armed men" and "smuggling tunnels." The sound of those two threatening phrases overcomes the sounds of gunfire by the air force and armored corps, the humming of the unmanned aircraft overhead, the whistle of the missiles, the long bursts of machine gun fire, the bombs and the shelling. And then the sirens of the ambulances.

For Rafah residents, the worries are all too familiar
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 19 May 2004

Rafah -- In every Israel Defense Forces invasion of a Palestinian city, the population has a similar daily schedule of difficulty and anxiety. Here is a partial list:

1. The sounds are first. People wake up to the sound of bullets and explosions, trying to figure out where they are coming from - whether from the air or from the ground - and where to hide.

Israeli troops kill 20 in Gaza camp raid
KEVIN FRAYER
The Associated Press, 18 May 2004

Rafah, Gaza Strip -- Under heavy cover fire from helicopters, Israeli troops combed this refugee camp for weapons and gunmen Tuesday in the biggest Gaza offensive in years. Twenty Palestinians were killed, including two teenagers shot as they gathered laundry.

The death toll was the highest one-day total since 35 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 5, 2002.

'There were rockets, shells. It was war. Then bulldozers destroyed everything'
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 18 May 2004

Rafah -- Um Hisham Qishta stood at the spot where she cradled a dying Israeli soldier in her arms a few days ago and said she was going nowhere. But just in case the armoured bulldozers came too close, she bundled the entire contents of her immaculate flat into plastic sacks yesterday and sent the furniture off on the back of a donkey cart. On the street below almost every family left in the Saladin district of Rafah was hauling belongings on to wooden carts in advance of the coming storm.

While 'rumors kill Rafah'
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 18 May 2004

Rafah -- 04:00-04:15 - Lengthy bursts of machine gun fire wake up the neighborhood. There are explosions from the border area. Y. explains that it's routine, almost every night. IDF patrols shoot at the abandoned houses on the border.

IDF incursion into the Rafah Refugee Camp – Special Edition
B'TSELEM
18 May 2004

IDF forces launched an incursion into the Rafah Refugee Camp early this morning. Israeli officials describe the incursion as the largest military operation since Operation Defensive Shield in the Spring of 2002.

Throughout the day B'Tselem has received reports of severe harm to the civilian population, including deaths, injury to medical teams, obstruction of medical care, house demolitions, and damage to infrastructure including roads, water and electricity.

100,000 tell Sharon to get out of Gaza
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 17 May 2004

Tel Aviv -- Israel said yesterday it would intensify its military assault on the Gaza strip, hours after more than 100,000 people rallied in Tel Aviv to demand that Ariel Sharon follow through on his pledge to withdraw Jewish settlers from the territory.

Gazans pile up their belongings and flee
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 17 May 2004

Rafah -- The streets of Rafah were filled yesterday evening with horse-drawn carts, trucks and pick-ups, all laden to the brim with any and every item that the town's residents could remove from their homes - mattresses, water tanks taken down from roofs, clothes, blankets, doors and windows removed from their hinges, dismantled beds and closets, school books, tin and asbestos sheeting, baby carriages, refrigerators, gas canisters and more.

Today Rafah, tomorrow Jenin
GIDEON LEVY
Ha'aretz, 16 May 2004

It is easy to criticize the scenes in Rafah as inhumane Palestinian cruelty. But the hard truth is even harder to digest - what we are seeing is the inevitable result of years of abuse of a helpless population.

The 13 soldiers who died in the Gaza Strip were not pointless victims because their sacrifice points the way to a withdrawal from the territory. Israel will prove yet again what it has known for a long time - the only language it really understands is the language of force. Withdrawals come only when so much blood is shed that the country's majority is persuaded that the country has no choice but to pull out.

Israeli troops die as refugee homes are destroyed
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 15 May 2004

Four more Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza strip yesterday as the military began razing hundreds of refugee homes in what the government called a security operation but critics described as retaliation for some of the worst casualties of the intifada. An Israeli member of parliament called the destruction a war crime.