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19 palestinians killed as israel troops descend on gaza strip { May 18 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Posted on Tue, May. 18, 2004
19 Palestinians killed as Israeli troops descend on Gaza Strip
BY SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON
Knight Ridder Newspapers
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - (KRT) - Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, backed by infantry and helicopter gunships, rolled through this city on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing 19 Palestinians and wounding at least 30 in what Israelis described as an open-ended operation to demolish tunnels used to smuggle weapons.
Most of the dead belonged to militant factions, but at least two were children. A 12-year-old boy and his sister, 16, both bled to death in their home as their parents cried out for help, said a neighbor, Mohammed, an aid worker who refused to give his last name. A 20th Palestinian was killed when a bomb he was building exploded in his home.
It was the largest massing of Israeli troops in Gaza since the 1967 Six-Day War. Soldiers searched house to house for militants, and helicopter gunships fired missiles that killed at least seven people, including four in front of the al-Salaam Mosque. One witness, Salah al Qattati, 29, said he and others were headed to pre-dawn prayers when a missile struck.
Israel launched the assault after militants last week blew apart an Israeli armored personnel carrier, killing five soldiers, on the outskirts of this city. Two days earlier, a bombing of an armored personnel carrier in Gaza City to the north killed six soldiers. The attacks were the worst against the Israeli Defense Forces in 18 months.
At a briefing for reporters at the Kissufim crossing in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, IDF chief Moshe Yaalon called Rafah a "gateway for terror."
"Rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons have made their way (to the Gaza Strip) through Rafah," he said. "With this operation we intend to make arrests to find the tunnels to get the smugglers and anyone involved in weapons smuggling."
Yaalon said Israeli forces destroyed three buildings in Rafah "which housed weapons and militants." He denied that Israeli soldiers were systematically destroying homes, backing off from an earlier statement Sunday in which defense officials said they would demolish hundreds of houses to protect forces patrolling the "Philadelphi Route."
The road, established about a decade ago as part of the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, allows the Israeli military to control a narrow strip between Gaza and the Egyptian border. But in recent years the route has become crisscrossed by tunnels used for smuggling weapons and goods into the fenced-in Gaza Strip.
"If we can stop the smuggling of arms into Gaza, then of course it will diminish terror all over," said government spokesman Avi Pazner. "In the last operation, in which our army lost 13 soldiers, there were dozens of explosions, not only shootings. The question is, from where do they have all these explosives? They are not supposed to be there."
The European Union condemned the raid, which was also criticized by the United Nations over fears it could make thousands homeless. Even the Bush administration, normally a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, expressed concern.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees set up tents to take in 1,500 displaced people from the Rafah Refugee Camp, home to 90,000 people and the scene of most of the clashes.
Many of the tents sat empty, however, as displaced residents moved in with relatives, settled into Rafah's municipal soccer stadium or rented empty buildings.
Majid al Hams, 37, an electrician, rented a cinderblock warehouse near his besieged home for $100 a month - a small fortune by Palestinian standards - for his wife and 10 children.
Using a donkey cart to carry everything from blankets to wooden doors to their new home, al Hams said he was hurrying to get his family into the warehouse by nightfall. The last straw was an apparent Israeli bullet that narrowly missed his 17-year-old daughter, Iman, as she was preparing her older brother's lunch in their four-story home 300 feet from the Philadephi Route.
"I don't want to die here. I want to live," said Iman, adding that she couldn't wait to leave the home her family has lived in for 30 years.
Her grandmother, Mariam al Hams, said she was leaving with a heavy heart. "This is the second time I'm being made a refugee," said Mariam al Hams, 70. She hails from an Arab village that's now the Israeli town of Yavne and fled with her family during Israel's War of Independence in 1948.
"What terrorism do you see that is worse than their terrorism?" she said, dismissing Israeli reasons given for the raid. "Who is blowing up our houses over our heads?"
Israeli-Palestinian clashes have surged in Gaza since Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlers. The plan is backed by most Israelis and the United States, but it's been held up by opposition from ruling party hard-liners. Sharon is determined to quash any claim of victory by the militants over the pullout.
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© 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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