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GAZA CITY, Oct 12: About 1,500 people have been left homeless in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza as a result of a major ongoing Israeli army operation, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Sunday.
“We have had very, very significant damage to the refugee camp. This is well more than twice as much as has been destroyed in any other action,” Peter Hansen, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told reporters here.
Hansen, who was speaking after inspecting the site for himself on Sunday morning, said that his agency had yet to complete a definitive tally of the damage to property in the raid which has cost eight Palestinian lives.
But he said: “It would appear between 100 and 120 shelters/houses were completely destroyed and completely demolished. These shelters are homes to some 250-300 families.
“The damage is very, very extensive in three of the so-called blocks the camp is made into.
“If these initial estimates are correct, it will mean we will have some 1,500 persons added to the homeless roll in Rafah which already has some 6,000 people.”
Hansen said that UNWRA would be setting up temporary shelters for the homeless but that it was not a long-term solution.
Eight Palestinians have been killed and about 80 injured during the operation launched Thursday night which Israel says is aimed at destroying tunnels used to smuggle in weapons from across the border with Egypt.
DISASTER ZONE DECLARED: The governor of Rafah declared the area a disaster zone on Sunday as the Israeli army pressed for a third straight day a major operation which has already claimed eight lives.
Majid al-Ghal said at least 100 houses had been destroyed during the operation, which the Israeli army says is aimed at destroying cross-border tunnels leading to Egypt used to smuggle arms.
“We announce that Rafah is a city of disaster,” said the governor.
“They have destroyed the roads, the water supplies, sewage, telephones, electricity.”
A local source for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told AFP that “at least 100 houses have been destroyed”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army pressed a major operation in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip for a third straight day that has left eight people dead and hundreds more homeless.
An Israeli military source said forces which withdrew from the area late Saturday were being relieved and that the operation aimed at destroying tunnels used to smuggle weapons underneath the border between Gaza and Egypt “will continue as long as is necessary”.
SIFTING THROUGH RUBBLE: Families were gathering furniture and personal belongings from the wreckage and rubble of their homes, trying to salvage clothes, furniture and even school books and satchels.
Ayman Abu Shannalah said that some 33 family members had been left homeless after their home had been destroyed by tank fire.
“On the first day, the Israeli army closed the area and tanks entered,” he said.
“We could not escape. The house was like a jail for two days, but suddenly occupation forces entered our houses yesterday and told us to leave.
“I refused but then they threatened to kill me with machineguns so my wife and her mother took me outside. In 30 minutes our houses was as flat as the land.”
Many of the children which were left homeless by the raid could be seen in tears as they surveyed the wreckage of their homes.
Suha Abdul, a 55-year-old mother, said that many of her family’s possessions had been wrecked by the Israeli soldiers when the entered their now partially destroyed two-storey house.
“The army asked my son and husband to leave the house,” she said.
“After we left the house, the army entered inside and searched and broke everything in the bedroom and kitchen. They took papers and even took a computer which is for my son at Gaza University.
“Then the bulldozers came and destroyed part of our house. We cannot return again because we fear it could fall down at any moment.”
The Israeli army said they have only destroyed a handful of buildings but a military source added that other houses had been damaged when troops returned fire at buildings from which they had come under attack.
An AFP correspondent at the site reported that a mosque near the border with Egypt had been damaged by Israeli tank shells and while the offices of a non-governmental agency for the handicapped had also been hit.
The Israelis say they have destroyed three tunnels used to smuggle weapons across the border with Egypt.
The operation was harshly criticised by the United Nations which issued a statement saying Secretary General Kofi Annan “deplores the killing of Palestinian civilians during the Israeli incursion into Rafah.”
The operation was continuing on Sunday, albeit on a smaller scale. Three tanks could be seen on the outskirts of the town.
BORDER BUFFER ZONE: “Our forces partially withdrew from the sector on Saturday night but others will be sent to support those forces still in place,” a military source told AFP.
“The operation will continue as long as is necessary and aims to discover and destroy the tunnels underneath the border between Gaza and Egypt used for smuggling weapons.”
However al-Ghal denied that the aim of the operation was merely to destroy the tunnels
“They want a buffer zone near the border. The subject of tunnels is a false accusation and a lie. Why destroy trees, agricultural land?”
SHOT DEAD: Meanwhile a Palestinian militant leader was shot dead overnight by Israeli soldiers near a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza.
The armed wing of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said Samir al-Bayouk, its leader in the Khan Yunis area, had been planting a bomb near Morag when he became involved in a gunbattle.—AFP
