From Occupied Palestine

A story about generals
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 24 May 2004

On the face of it, this is a story about 14-year-old Mohammed Shaqfa from Block O in Rafah, whose house was destroyed by an IDF bulldozer on May 13. One of some 70 homes completely demolished in two days there.

His family was sitting in the house (built from his father's earnings from work at Kibbutz Re'im). The father was praying. It was evening. Suddenly the family members heard a bang on the wall outside. They tried to open the door, but could not. They understood there must be a bulldozer outside. For fear of explosives, the bulldozer digs its teeth deep into the sand and throws it forward into an ever growing mound. The pile of sand prevented them from leaving the house. Mohammed climbed up the hill that had formed, and used a stone to bang on the side of the bulldozer. He made a sign to the driver to stop. The driver asked him in Arabic whether there were people inside. Mohammed said there were. You have 10 minutes to leave, the driver told him. The family grabbed a pre-packed bag ("like a woman rushing to give birth") with documents and money, and fled. Since then, the family has been staying at the Hansa school in the Shabura refugee camp, together with dozens of other newly homeless, without showers, their water rationed; the men sleep outside in the courtyard at night, under the helicopters. Two days after they lost their house, Mohammed's parents found that some of their son's hair had turned white.

Residents seethe as dead go unburied
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 23 May 2004

Rafah -- The man who interrupted Peter Hansen yesterday morning proved a harbinger of things to come. To hell with manners. He didn't allow the UNRWA Commissioner-General to continue his improvised press conference in the courtyard of UNRWA warehouses in Rafah.

IDF cuts forces in Rafah; 3-year-old girl killed
ARNON REGULAR in Tel Aviv
AMIRA HASS in Rafah

A 3-year-old girl was killed yesterday afternoon in Rafah's Brazil neighborhood. She died from a bullet wound to the neck sustained as she played close to her home. IDF spokesmen said the army knows nothing about the incident, but that the girl's death will be investigated.

Meanwhile, the IDF reduced troop deployments in Rafah this weekend. The Golani Brigade left Rafah's Tel Sultan neighborhood and the Givati Brigade pulled out of the town's Brazil neighborhood. As of press time last night, two IDF infantry battalions, supported by tank and engineering corps units, remained in Rafah. Senior IDF sources indicated the army's Operation Rainbow in Rafah is continuing as scheduled and that the changes in troop deployments were planned in advance.

Darkness at noon
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 21 May 2004

Rafah -- Some say they heard it at 10 A.M. - others said they heard it at 11 A.M. on Wednesday: Loudspeakers calling the men of Tel Sultan to leave their homes and proceed to the Omariya School. The refugee neighborhood of 25,000 souls has been under complete military occupation and curfew since dawn Tuesday. Communication with residents, and between them, has been solely by telephone. Their sense of time has become vague since they cannot see the street with their own eyes. They hardly dare an occasional peep to look at what is happening right beneath their windows. There are reports that snipers have situated themselves in the taller buildings to shoot at "anything that moves."

Some of the bodies were put two to a box
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 20 May 2004

Rafah -- Suddenly there was a shout from outside: "Leave everything. The Jews have fired missiles at the demonstration. Lots of casualties. Send ambulances." The man shouting ran into the small hut in the hospital's yard from where the ambulance drivers leave.

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.

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.

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.

Terrorists, seven times
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 11 May 2004

On May 2, policemen from the Nachshon unit of the Prison Services severely beat six Palestinian detainees who were brought from the Russian Compound to the military courtroom at Ofer for the commencement of their trial.

The policemen beat the men in front of their families, lawyers and a few officers of the court (including the military prosecutor and the translator). The Prison Services told Haaretz that "fighters of the Nachshon Unit [of the Prison Services, who are in charge of the terrorists, the security detainees in the military prisons] overcame six terrorists who started to riot - and who tried to make (physical) contact with members of their families, and this is contrary to the Prison Services' standing orders and regulations."