- RAFAH -- The Israeli Army
finally pulled out of Rafah yesterday - for the moment at least - after
a week-long operation, that has left 45 Palestinians dead, 67 homes demolished,
and a trail of destroyed or damaged farmland, roads and infrastructure.
-
- For the Palestinians of Rafah, the worst afflicted in
Gaza since the beginning of the present uprising, the incursion into three
sections of the town's sprawling refugee camp almost certainly generated
more fear than any other in the last three and half years.
-
- It was preceded by an operation four days earlier close
to the heavily guarded Egypt-Gaza border in which 15 Palestinians were
killed and 88 homes demolished as Israeli forces hunted for the body parts
of five soldiers killed when their armoured troop carrier was blown up
by militants.
-
- But it is Operation Rainbow, which began last Monday
when armoured forces rumbled into the Rafah refugee camp's neighbourhood
of Tel Sultan, that Said Zorab will remember. The town's mayor, now grappling
with the task of making good the devastation, declared in his office yesterday:
"This has been the worst nine days of my life".
-
- Yet the question now being asked in sections of the Israeli
media and public is whether the achievements have so far been worth the
price.
-
- For the rooting out of militants and the hunting down
of tunnels used for smuggling weapons may not have been quite as comprehensive
as the advance publicity - comparing the operation with the West Bank Operation
Defensive Shield in 2002 - suggested it might be. Brigadier General Shmuel
Zakai, in overall charge of the operation, said on Monday that its goals
had "been achieved". Three tunnels have been found in varying
degrees of operational readiness. According to Army figures, 41 militants
have been killed during the two operations and 10 suspects have been detained
out of a total of 100 arrested.
-
- While most house demolitions, and much of the shooting,
were in the Brazil neighbourhood, the tanks and snipers stayed longest
in Tel Sultan, not usually regarded as one of the top militant strongholds
in the town. Because of the relatively wide streets, Israeli forces find
it somewhat easier to move through the district than in the maze of alleys
running through the packed neighbourhoods of Yebna, Bashit and Shabura,
which is closer to the centre of town, and known to be a particularly active
base for armed militants. Indeed several residents have said during the
past week that, fearing an incursion, they sent their families to Tel Sultan
assuming - unwisely as it turned out - it would be the safest place.
-
- Many Palestinians here contend the Israelis wanted to
improve their troops' morale, after the killings of 13 soldiers in Rafah
and Gaza City, with the minimum of danger to their own forces. But at least
one Israeli media assumption is that the Army had intended a wider incursion
but decided to stay its hand, perhaps partly because of the adverse international
reaction to the deaths of civilians, including nine children under 16,
but especially because of the carnage which ended the protesters' march
on Tel Sultan last Wednesday. (The Army admits to a total of 14 civilians
killed overall but Palestinian sources put the figure significantly higher.)
-
- According to Amir Rapoport, the military commentator
on Maariv newspaper, "The fact that the [Army] left Rafah - and the
bottom line is that this was because of criticism in the world and Israel,
and because it feared a humanitarian disaster - without even daring to
enter the Shabura neighbourhood, is to a degree a failure as is the fact
that no ammunition stores were found." Against, this he argued, lay
the fact that no Israeli soldiers were hurt, despite heavy exchanges of
gunfire.
-
- The Israeli Army does not take kindly to suggestions,
however qualified, of "failure". Which may be a reason why at
least one senior Army officer was quoted as suggesting the operation was
not over and the forces were now taking a "deep breath".
-
- The risks, to both sides, of incursions into districts
like Shabura, are great. But it may be premature to assume that the Israeli
forces have abandoned any notion of a fresh and wider assault on the city.
Which is why the residents of Rafah, at any rate, are assuming no such
thing.
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=524887
|
