GAZA CITY, May 15

- The Israeli occupation army flattened more than a hundred Palestinian houses in a two-day demolition spree in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, driving over 1,000 Palestinians homeless.

"On entering the camp this morning, we found 88 buildings demolished which had housed 206 families. It affects 1,064 people," said U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Paul McCann.

"This is incredibly intense. It is probably one of the worst days of the Intifada for Rafah which has already been hit very hard," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The demolitions and the resulting increase of homeless Palestinians coincided with the Nakba Day, the day when Israel was created 65 years ago on the lands of Palestine.

On Friday, May 14, UNRWA has described the situation in Rafah as a "humanitarian catastrophe".

Since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, UNRWA statistics show that Rafah has suffered severely from the Israeli house demolition policy, with more than 11,000 people made homeless.

Palestinian security forces and rights groups condemned the Israeli demolitions, widely slammed as a collective punishment measure.

The Independent quoted an AP's resident correspondent in Rafah as saying "frantic Palestinian residents fled their homes waving white flags and carrying valuables in cartons and plastic bags. They even took away furniture, doors and window frames".

"This is a humanitarian catastrophe and a war crime," Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security in Gaza.

"The army destroyed roads, electricity and water supplies in the camp. They have destroyed everything," he said in a statement faxed to AFP.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) earlier said more than 100 buildings were destroyed in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

The Israeli army insisted Saturday that the comprehensive raid was limited to the task of finding the remains of soldiers killed Wednesday.

It denied the measure was part of a government scheme to widen the security zone round the border patrol road where the dead soldiers' troop carrier was blown up, reported the British daily.

On Thursday, Israel said it would bulldoze "hundreds of houses" to widen the buffer zone in a bid to secure its patrols and prevent resistance fighters from using what it calls "tunnels to smuggle weapons".

The move was green-lighted by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

An official from Sharon's office warned the demolition would commence in earnest after troops completed the search for the remains of the five soldiers.

The search ended early Saturday, the army said shortly after troops withdrew from the town.

Two more Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian were killed in the area Friday.

The body of another Palestinian was discovered early Saturday under the rubble of his destroyed home, Palestinian medics told AFP.


*Israel To Destroy "Hundreds Of Homes" In Rafah

GAZA CITY, May 14 - Hours after Israel declared hundreds 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".

en toen zwegen de Israel fanboys bedremmeld.

Wachten gewoon af tot de operatie volledig is en wij groen licht krijgen van Sharon :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Lincoln, het helpt misschien als je je postings wat korter houdt. Iedereen weet wat daar gebeurt, we worden er zelf continu onder bedolven.

En er hier over discussieren gaat het niet doen ophouden, ik heb soms de indruk dat sommige forumschrijvers hier denken van wel.

Hier komen zeggen dat discussieren het niet gaat doen ophouden gaat de discusie niet doen ophouden. :wink:

bron De Standaard:
Dit schijnt dus weer zo'n toneelstuk te zijn als in Jenin waar ze speciaal lijken uit de graven haalden en begrafenissen simuleerden om een genocide te simuleren. Hetzelfde was de enscenering van het "doodschieten" van Mohamed Al Dura in Gaza. Het ergste is dat die feiten in Jenin onlangs bevestigd werden door de Palestijnen zelf. Die informatie zal in de komende weken of maanden getoond worden :lol:

De EU trapt voor de zoveelste keer in de val en halen er nog eens winkels bij in de tekst, tenzij de VRT dat weeral zelf heeft uitgevonden (ze bedoelen voorzeker schietkramen!)

Mhhhh... comandant van het Israelische leger. Wat zit hier niet goed?
Zielige poging om zich goed te praten.
De Gaza kampt met vluchtelingen kampen die overvol zitten. Het is dus ook logisch dat die Palestijnen huizen laten leeg staan. :roll:

'T is niet omdat jullie kritiek op de Islam voort komt uit haat dat dat bij ons ook zo is.
Ik ben tegen de Havikken in Israel, dus tegen Sharon en de zijnen.
Net zoals ik tegen de neocons in de VS ben.
Wil dit zeggen dat ik tegen de VS en Israel ben?

goe geprobeerd fonske, maar alles lezen hé:

Aldus uw volledig onpartijdige Israelische generaal. Wat mij betreft, ik heb geen hakenkruisen nodig om een nazi te herkennen.

Discussieren is gezond , zolang je bij de topic blijft...in deze geval vind ik zeker de moeite waard om de waandaden van onze corrupte zak Sharon te onderstrepen...

Das juist, als je in de spiegel kijkt herken je er al zo enen :roll:

Wie spreekt over haat voor de Islam? Jij ! De meer dan 900.000 Joden door de islamieten verdreven uit hun eigen land hebben geen haatgevoelens tov de Islam. Heb ik nog deze weekend duidelijk gehoord!

Qua Israel en Sharon denk ik wel dat jij het daar correct speelt!

Wat mij wel opvalt is dat iedereen tot op alle details de film van de onthoofde Berg wou ontleden en niemand hier gezien heeft dat bepaalde filmopnamen "in Rafah" staged waren. Als je goed gekeken hebt en wat grijze materie hebt kon je het niet missen: het lag er dik op :roll:

Veel van deze forum gangers praten er openlijk over. Met "jullie" veralgemeende ik de neocons en al die uiterst rechts meningen in de gerne van Darwin en de zijnen.
Is niet leuk als je veralgemeend wordt, hé.

Laat eens zien waar ik veralgemeen 8)

AI heeft zich ook al laten vangen in Jenin. Ze gaan gewoon op een paar geruchten voort zonder dat na te trekken en ze willen dan niet onderdoen voor de andere organisaties die zomaar klakkeloos de palestijnse propaganda overnemen.

Ik heb de film op de TV gezien en dat zegt mij al genoeg van wat er daar NIET gebeurd. Niemand heeft zich de moeite getroost die filmopnamen kritisch te bekijken zoals de moord op Nick Berg, waar de linkies dan nog eens de hand van Bush wilden in zien. Juist zoals de 9/11 en de Mossad.

Fonske je hebt weer niet gelezen wat hier stond over die filmopnamen of je wil er weer geen reactie opgeven. Als je echt dialoog wil dan moet je ook met echte argumenten afkomen.

dus uw bewering is: Israel sloopt geen huizen van Palestijnen?