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Israel To Destroy "Hundreds Of Homes" In Rafah
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Israeli bulldozers yield more "homeless Palestinians"
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GAZA
CITY, May 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Hours after
Israel declared hundred more Palestinian homes would be pulled down in
the southern Gaza Strip, the United Nations agency in charge of
Palestinian refugees described the situation in Rafah as a
"humanitarian catastrophe" Friday, May 14.
The
Palestinian Authority, for its part, described the Israeli plan as a
"major catastrophe", and Israeli lawmaker Yossi Sarid told
Israel Radio that the mass demolition of Palestinian buildings would
be a war crime and warned against "razing half of the town of
Rafah."
The
plan to destroy the homes and expand the route Israel controls along
the border with Egypt was approved Thursday, May 13, at a high-level
meeting attended by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz and other top officials, according to Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
Paul
McCann, from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA),
condemned Israel's policy of demolishing entire neighborhoods in the
refugee camps along the border with Egypt and warned of a deepening
crisis, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"It's
impossible to believe that every one of these houses shelters
militants or the entrance to a tunnel," McCann said in response
to the Israeli government's argument that the demolitions are aimed at
preventing the use of cross-border arms-smuggling tunnels.
He
also pointed out that the "empty buildings" were only
abandoned because of the constant danger of being killed or wounded
and eventually expelled by the Israeli occupation army.
"When
the house on your left has been blown up and the house on your right
has been blown up, you know you're next, so families don't always wait
until the last moment to find other housing," he explained.
Israel's
public radio said Thursday, "The first houses to be destroyed
will be empty buildings. Then inhabited houses will be demolished.
Israel will be responsible for finding new accommodation for the
evacuated people".
On
Friday, Ha'aretz quoted an unnamed Israeli political source as
saying that the occupation army intended to destroy "dozens or
perhaps hundreds" of homes and widen the 9-km long buffer zone
once soldiers complete a search in the area for the remains of their
comrades blown up two days ago.
"It's
a major source of infiltration and smuggling of weapons. We've got to
stop it," said the official.
Israeli
demolitions aimed at widening the so-called "Philadelphi
route" buffer zone have already made 11,000 Palestinians homeless
since the start of the Intifada in September 2000, in policy UNRWA
chief Peter Hansen as condemned as "collective punishment".
McCann
said the agency had only managed to find new housing for 1,000 people
over those three and half years and complained that an emergency
appeal for larger donations this year had not been met.
In
a typical reaction that follows every and each Israeli measure of this
kind, the largely symbolic Palestinian Authority urged the
international community to prevent the Israeli demolitions.
"Destroying
these houses will be a major catastrophe for our people. It is
extremely serious," Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat
told AFP.
"This
shows Israel intends to stay in the Gaza Strip and not withdraw from
it," he said.
An
official from Sharon's office claimed, "This is a legitimate
defensive measure, which is aimed at ensuring better protection for
our soldiers who shouldn't remain as sitting ducks and at preventing
the smuggling of weapons, mortars, rockets and tunnels between Egypt
and the Gaza Strip," reported AFP.
Israel
has been razing homes in Rafah for the past 3 and a half years
claiming to be searching for tunnels used for smuggling weapons even
though such controversial practices dubbed by the international
community as "collective punishment" for a people under
occupation, seldom proved Israeli claims.
In
numerous occasions, the Egyptian leadership has denied the Israeli
claims and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has, more than once, dared
Israel publicly to provide evidence such tunnels even existed.
Several
Houses Destroyed In Rafah
On
Thursday, meanwhile, the Israeli army occupied and demolished several
Palestinian houses in Rafah Thursday.
Israeli
chief of staff Moshe Yaalon told army radio that troops had
"seized control of several buildings" and were widening the
buffer zone which runs along the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt.
Israeli
bulldozers have been razing entire blocks in Rafah's camps to enlarge
the buffer zone along the border to impede what it claimed to be
"the construction of tunnels".
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