Early this morning, Friday October 10, 2003, Israeli occupying forces conducted a large scale incursion into the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip. Under cover of intense shelling and gunfire from tanks and helicopters, Israeli forces invaded the area which is one of the most densely populated in the Gaza Strip.
At the time of writing, 6 people have been killed, including 2 children, and 38 civilians have been injured, including women, children and elderly people. Approximately 10 houses were destroyed in the attack, some completely and some partially, and there has been widespread destruction to buildings, roads and other aspects of the civilian infrastructure. Israeli occupying forces have imposed a strict curfew on the area.
According to Israeli military sources, this operation is set to continue for several days, during which time PCHR is gravely concerned that further crimes will be committed against civilians in the area. PCHR believes that this latest attack is part of a wider strategy which has already resulted in the destruction of hundreds of houses adjacent to the Egyptian border, justified by Israeli authorities for ‘security’ reasons.
However, the facts on the ground prove that these demolitions are part of a strategic policy to clear a large area of Palestinian land near the border with Egypt to facilitate a wide buffer zone to increase Israeli military control in the area. Israeli forces have begun construction of a concrete and metal wall parallel to the border with Egypt on land cleared of Palestinian homes in similar demolition operations.
According to information collected by PCHR, at approximately 12 midnight, more than 80 Israeli tanks, accompanied by military bulldozers and helicopters, moved approximately 300 meters into Blocks L and J of the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the Egyptian border. Under cover of heavy shelling by the tanks and helicopters, Israeli forces raided and took over several houses in the area, using them as military posts. Bulldozers demolished houses, buildings and aspects of the civilian infrastructure. As a result of the severity of this operation, at the time of writing, it is not possible to provide conclusive figures for the number of houses and families affected by this attack.
Soon after Israeli forces moved into the area, clashes broke out between members of the Palestinian resistance and Israeli forces, during which time 2 armed Palestinians were killed. 4 other Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed as a result of indiscriminate shelling and shooting from tanks and helicopters into the densely populated area. 38 civilians were injured, including 11 children, 6 women and 6 elderly people. PCHR’s field worker reported that the 6 elderly people were injured when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at around 4.20am towards a group of houses and a Palestinian woman and her daughter were forced to wait for 3 hours for medical assistance after they were injured while in their home.
During the attack, Palestinian ambulances were fired at while attempting to evacuate the wounded and one of the medics, Raja Salah Omer, 30, was shot in the back and is currently in a critical condition. PCHR’s field workers reported that ambulances and medical teams faced severe difficulties in evacuating the injured to hospitals in other areas of the Gaza Strip, due to the severe closures currently being imposed on the entire OPT. The major hospitals are located in Gaza City and it is currently impossible to travel from Rafah to the north. For the 6th consecutive day, Israeli forces have imposed a comprehensive closure on the entire OPT, closing off the borders with Israel and Egypt as well as dividing up the Gaza Strip into 4 parts.
Of the 6 killed, 5 have been identified as: Mohammed Ahmed Abd al-Wahab, 23, shot in the abdomen; Nader Ahmed Fouad Abu Taha, 23, shot in the chest; Ibrahim Ahmed Qrainawi, 8, shot in the abdomen; Alaa Noaman Mansour, 33, shot in the abdomen; and Sami Talal Salah, 15, hit in the head by shrapnel from a tank shell.
PCHR condemns this latest crime committed in Rafah and remains deeply concerned about the ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, carried out by Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT. PCHR has consistently reiterated its concerns about the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian civilian property, including homes, educational and health facilities, commercial properties, and civilian infrastructure. The extensive destruction of civilian property, carried out wantonly and unlawfully without military necessity, constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR reasserts that the ongoing silence of the international community, specifically the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the failure to intervene to ensure protection for the Palestinian civilian population has served to encourage further violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Thus, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT.
Article republished, courtesy of the Electronic Intifada:
http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: http://www.pchrgaza.org/
UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
----------------------------
THE INVASION OF RAFAH
----------------------------
Diaries:
THE MIRROR OF FIRE AND TEARS
Laura Gordon, writing from Rafah, occupied Gaza
Electronic Intifada Diaries, 7 October 2003
Tanks cut off the main road between Rafah and Khan Younis (the city just north of Rafah) by driving ten tanks right in front of the European Gaza Hospital, the only decent hospital south of Gaza City, and the road has been closed for days. The week before this closure, Rasha spent 5 hours one day waiting for Abu Holi to open so she could go home and the next day it closed all night, leaving her to sleep at her friend's sister's house in Gaza City after waiting for 4 hours in a hot taxi in line with hundreds of cars waiting for the checkpoint to open. I compare our worlds, like parallel universes, squinting at each other from both sides of a mirror. Laura Gordon reports from Rafah.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2042.shtml
Human Rights:
ISRAELI OCCUPYING FORCES CONTINUE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CLOSURE OF GAZA STRIP Report, PCHR, 7 October 2003
Israeli occupying forces are continuing the third day of total internal and external closure of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have used this period to perpetrate additional violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against the Palestinian civilian population in the southern Gaza Strip.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2032.shtml
Human Rights:
ISRAELI FORCES KILL SIX PALESTINIANS, 30 CIVILIANWOUNDED IN RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP Report, PCHR, 10 October 2003
Early this morning, Friday October 10, 2003, Israeli occupying forces conducted a large scale incursion into the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip. Under cover of intense shelling and gunfire from tanks and helicopters, Israeli forces invaded the area which is one of the most densely populated in the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2039.shtml
Human Rights:
WEEKLY REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Report, PCHR, 9 October 2003
This week Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including a child and an elderly man. Two were killed in an extra-judicial execution in Tulkarem. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces moved into Jenin and carried out retaliatory attacks against Palestinian civilian and property. Israeli forces razed hundreds of donums of Palestinian agricultural land in the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, Israeli forces demolished five homes. Israeli forces indiscriminately shelled Palestinian residential areas and fired missiles on a home in Gaza City and al-Boreij refugee camp. Israeli forces demolished three homes as part of the continued campaign of retaliation against the families of wanted Palestinians and those who allegedly carried out armed attacks against Israeli targets. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in Israeli military operations. This week, the Israeli Minister of Defense
decided to intensify the construction of the "separation wall". The Gaza Strip was divided into four isolated zones. Palestinian communities in the West Bank were separated from one another and Palestinian vehicles were prohibited from traveling on the main roads in the West Bank.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2040.shtml
-----------------------
OPINION/EDITORIAL
-----------------------
Opinion/Editorial:
EDWARD SAID'S JOURNEY TO ITHAKA
Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada, 11 October 2003
"'Joseph, are you still sleeping, it's 8am already?' These are the first words I would hear upon picking up the phone three, four times a week," writes Joseph Massad. The powerful teasing voice on the other side was that of Edward Said. Massad remembers his dear friend and teacher, and contemplates how the legacy of this exemplary scholar and public intellectual can teach us how to continue our journey.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2041.shtml
Opinion/Editorial:
ISRAEL'S DATE WITH A RUNAWAY FREIGHT TRAIN
Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada, 8 October 2003
To its standard list of revenge measures following the Haifa suicide attack, Israel added the novel step of bombing Syria. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, and EI co-founder Ali Abunimah write that this escalation by Israel will not save it from an existential crisis that is hurtling towards it like a runaway train.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2033.shtml
------------------------
FROM UNDER A ROCK
------------------------
Israel Lobby Watch:
KISSINGER GAVE GREEN LIGHT FOR ISRAELI OFFENSIVE VIOLATING 1973 CEASE-FIRE
Report, National Security Archive, 7 October 2003
During the 1973 October War, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger secretly gave Israeli authorities a green light to breach a cease-fire agreement arranged with the Soviet Union, according to new documents published by the National Security Archive today on the war's 30th anniversary.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2036.shtml
--------------------
ARTS & ACTIVISM
--------------------
Art, Music & Culture:
ART REVIEW: MIND, BODY AND SOUL OF PALESTINE - A PHOTO JOURNAL EXHIBIT
Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada, 9 October 2003
In Mind, Body and Soul of Palestine: A Photo Journal Exhibit , time, imagery, and stereotype are challenged and contradicted. Indeed, some of the imagery in the photographs contradict each other, causing the viewer to reconsider what they know about this country called Palestine that is constantly being reported but seldom understood. The show is presented by al-PHAN (which stands for Palestinian Humanities and Arts Now), a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization, and will be traveling around the U.S through next spring.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2037.shtml
Activism:
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
Report, United Nations, 8 October 2003
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations on 29 November each year, in accordance with mandates given by the General Assembly.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2038.shtml
The Electronic Intifada is an educational non-profit project focused on media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, found at: http://electronicIntifada.net .
More information about our work can be found at:
http://electronicIntifada.net/introduction/ .
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via
credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More info at: http://electronicIntifada.net/contact/
At the time of writing, 6 people have been killed, including 2 children, and 38 civilians have been injured, including women, children and elderly people. Approximately 10 houses were destroyed in the attack, some completely and some partially, and there has been widespread destruction to buildings, roads and other aspects of the civilian infrastructure. Israeli occupying forces have imposed a strict curfew on the area.
According to Israeli military sources, this operation is set to continue for several days, during which time PCHR is gravely concerned that further crimes will be committed against civilians in the area. PCHR believes that this latest attack is part of a wider strategy which has already resulted in the destruction of hundreds of houses adjacent to the Egyptian border, justified by Israeli authorities for ‘security’ reasons.
However, the facts on the ground prove that these demolitions are part of a strategic policy to clear a large area of Palestinian land near the border with Egypt to facilitate a wide buffer zone to increase Israeli military control in the area. Israeli forces have begun construction of a concrete and metal wall parallel to the border with Egypt on land cleared of Palestinian homes in similar demolition operations.
According to information collected by PCHR, at approximately 12 midnight, more than 80 Israeli tanks, accompanied by military bulldozers and helicopters, moved approximately 300 meters into Blocks L and J of the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the Egyptian border. Under cover of heavy shelling by the tanks and helicopters, Israeli forces raided and took over several houses in the area, using them as military posts. Bulldozers demolished houses, buildings and aspects of the civilian infrastructure. As a result of the severity of this operation, at the time of writing, it is not possible to provide conclusive figures for the number of houses and families affected by this attack.
Soon after Israeli forces moved into the area, clashes broke out between members of the Palestinian resistance and Israeli forces, during which time 2 armed Palestinians were killed. 4 other Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed as a result of indiscriminate shelling and shooting from tanks and helicopters into the densely populated area. 38 civilians were injured, including 11 children, 6 women and 6 elderly people. PCHR’s field worker reported that the 6 elderly people were injured when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at around 4.20am towards a group of houses and a Palestinian woman and her daughter were forced to wait for 3 hours for medical assistance after they were injured while in their home.
During the attack, Palestinian ambulances were fired at while attempting to evacuate the wounded and one of the medics, Raja Salah Omer, 30, was shot in the back and is currently in a critical condition. PCHR’s field workers reported that ambulances and medical teams faced severe difficulties in evacuating the injured to hospitals in other areas of the Gaza Strip, due to the severe closures currently being imposed on the entire OPT. The major hospitals are located in Gaza City and it is currently impossible to travel from Rafah to the north. For the 6th consecutive day, Israeli forces have imposed a comprehensive closure on the entire OPT, closing off the borders with Israel and Egypt as well as dividing up the Gaza Strip into 4 parts.
Of the 6 killed, 5 have been identified as: Mohammed Ahmed Abd al-Wahab, 23, shot in the abdomen; Nader Ahmed Fouad Abu Taha, 23, shot in the chest; Ibrahim Ahmed Qrainawi, 8, shot in the abdomen; Alaa Noaman Mansour, 33, shot in the abdomen; and Sami Talal Salah, 15, hit in the head by shrapnel from a tank shell.
PCHR condemns this latest crime committed in Rafah and remains deeply concerned about the ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, carried out by Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT. PCHR has consistently reiterated its concerns about the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian civilian property, including homes, educational and health facilities, commercial properties, and civilian infrastructure. The extensive destruction of civilian property, carried out wantonly and unlawfully without military necessity, constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR reasserts that the ongoing silence of the international community, specifically the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the failure to intervene to ensure protection for the Palestinian civilian population has served to encourage further violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Thus, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT.
Article republished, courtesy of the Electronic Intifada:
http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: http://www.pchrgaza.org/
UPDATE FROM THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
----------------------------
THE INVASION OF RAFAH
----------------------------
Diaries:
THE MIRROR OF FIRE AND TEARS
Laura Gordon, writing from Rafah, occupied Gaza
Electronic Intifada Diaries, 7 October 2003
Tanks cut off the main road between Rafah and Khan Younis (the city just north of Rafah) by driving ten tanks right in front of the European Gaza Hospital, the only decent hospital south of Gaza City, and the road has been closed for days. The week before this closure, Rasha spent 5 hours one day waiting for Abu Holi to open so she could go home and the next day it closed all night, leaving her to sleep at her friend's sister's house in Gaza City after waiting for 4 hours in a hot taxi in line with hundreds of cars waiting for the checkpoint to open. I compare our worlds, like parallel universes, squinting at each other from both sides of a mirror. Laura Gordon reports from Rafah.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2042.shtml
Human Rights:
ISRAELI OCCUPYING FORCES CONTINUE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CLOSURE OF GAZA STRIP Report, PCHR, 7 October 2003
Israeli occupying forces are continuing the third day of total internal and external closure of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have used this period to perpetrate additional violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against the Palestinian civilian population in the southern Gaza Strip.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2032.shtml
Human Rights:
ISRAELI FORCES KILL SIX PALESTINIANS, 30 CIVILIANWOUNDED IN RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP Report, PCHR, 10 October 2003
Early this morning, Friday October 10, 2003, Israeli occupying forces conducted a large scale incursion into the Rafah refugee camp, adjacent to the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip. Under cover of intense shelling and gunfire from tanks and helicopters, Israeli forces invaded the area which is one of the most densely populated in the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2039.shtml
Human Rights:
WEEKLY REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Report, PCHR, 9 October 2003
This week Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including a child and an elderly man. Two were killed in an extra-judicial execution in Tulkarem. Israeli forces conducted a series of incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces moved into Jenin and carried out retaliatory attacks against Palestinian civilian and property. Israeli forces razed hundreds of donums of Palestinian agricultural land in the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, Israeli forces demolished five homes. Israeli forces indiscriminately shelled Palestinian residential areas and fired missiles on a home in Gaza City and al-Boreij refugee camp. Israeli forces demolished three homes as part of the continued campaign of retaliation against the families of wanted Palestinians and those who allegedly carried out armed attacks against Israeli targets. Israeli forces continued to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in Israeli military operations. This week, the Israeli Minister of Defense
decided to intensify the construction of the "separation wall". The Gaza Strip was divided into four isolated zones. Palestinian communities in the West Bank were separated from one another and Palestinian vehicles were prohibited from traveling on the main roads in the West Bank.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2040.shtml
-----------------------
OPINION/EDITORIAL
-----------------------
Opinion/Editorial:
EDWARD SAID'S JOURNEY TO ITHAKA
Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada, 11 October 2003
"'Joseph, are you still sleeping, it's 8am already?' These are the first words I would hear upon picking up the phone three, four times a week," writes Joseph Massad. The powerful teasing voice on the other side was that of Edward Said. Massad remembers his dear friend and teacher, and contemplates how the legacy of this exemplary scholar and public intellectual can teach us how to continue our journey.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2041.shtml
Opinion/Editorial:
ISRAEL'S DATE WITH A RUNAWAY FREIGHT TRAIN
Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada, 8 October 2003
To its standard list of revenge measures following the Haifa suicide attack, Israel added the novel step of bombing Syria. Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah, and EI co-founder Ali Abunimah write that this escalation by Israel will not save it from an existential crisis that is hurtling towards it like a runaway train.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2033.shtml
------------------------
FROM UNDER A ROCK
------------------------
Israel Lobby Watch:
KISSINGER GAVE GREEN LIGHT FOR ISRAELI OFFENSIVE VIOLATING 1973 CEASE-FIRE
Report, National Security Archive, 7 October 2003
During the 1973 October War, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger secretly gave Israeli authorities a green light to breach a cease-fire agreement arranged with the Soviet Union, according to new documents published by the National Security Archive today on the war's 30th anniversary.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2036.shtml
--------------------
ARTS & ACTIVISM
--------------------
Art, Music & Culture:
ART REVIEW: MIND, BODY AND SOUL OF PALESTINE - A PHOTO JOURNAL EXHIBIT
Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada, 9 October 2003
In Mind, Body and Soul of Palestine: A Photo Journal Exhibit , time, imagery, and stereotype are challenged and contradicted. Indeed, some of the imagery in the photographs contradict each other, causing the viewer to reconsider what they know about this country called Palestine that is constantly being reported but seldom understood. The show is presented by al-PHAN (which stands for Palestinian Humanities and Arts Now), a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization, and will be traveling around the U.S through next spring.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2037.shtml
Activism:
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
Report, United Nations, 8 October 2003
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations on 29 November each year, in accordance with mandates given by the General Assembly.
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article2038.shtml
The Electronic Intifada is an educational non-profit project focused on media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, found at: http://electronicIntifada.net .
More information about our work can be found at:
http://electronicIntifada.net/introduction/ .
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via
credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More info at: http://electronicIntifada.net/contact/