- RAFAH -- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- Defence officials were quoted as saying the assault would
last for several days as troops worked their way through the camp.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- >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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- Earlier this week, Gen Ya'alon had also said that the
army planned to destroy hundreds of Palestinian homes.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1219823,00.html
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