Israel's terror campaign

Israeli troops unleashed a campaign of terror on the 
Palestinian residents of the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip 
last week, using tanks, helicopter gunships, missiles and 
bulldozers to demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes and render 
thousands of people homeless in a matter of days. At least 19 
Palestinians, including several children, were killed on May 18 
alone.

Eyewitnesses reported hundreds of panic-stricken residents 
gathering up whatever household belongings they could — clothes, 
blankets, mattresses, refrigerators, school books — and loading 
up horse-drawn carts, cars, and pick-ups to flee the advancing 
Israeli tanks and bulldozers.

"Two years ago, they tore down my first house on top of me", one 
of the daughters of the a-Sha'ar family told a reporter from the 
Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. "Now, the moment I heard them 
approaching, I fled."

The Israeli military operations — including a horrible massacre 
of many children and teenagers at a protest demonstration on May 
19 — provoked a worldwide outcry, with the notable exception of 
US President Bush, who refused to condemn the terror campaign.

Israeli officials claimed they needed to demolish hundreds of 
homes in the area to render a huge swath of land between the Gaza 
Strip and Egypt more secure against weapons smugglers.

However, the massive and indiscriminate destruction was widely 
denounced as an act of collective punishment against the 
Palestinian people in the wake of the deaths of 13 Israeli 
soldiers killed during an earlier incursion. Thirty-two 
Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in that same episode.

Peter Hansen, the commissioner-general of the United Nations 
Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, decried the 
terrible humanitarian crisis in Rafah, adding, "With these 
disproportionate military operations, Israel is in grave breach 
of international law. This collective punishment can do nothing 
to calm the situation in Gaza or enhance Israel's own security."

Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House 
Demolitions, said that attacks on non-combatants, collective 
punishment, and the demolition of homes constitute war crimes. He 
also said virtually all of the weapons and bulldozers used 
against the Palestinians are American-made.

Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat urgently called for the 
world to intercede and block the Israeli actions.

Earlier in the week, at least 120,000 Israelis attended a peace 
rally in Tel Aviv May 15 under the slogan, "Leave Gaza and start 
talking." Rally speakers from widely different viewpoints called 
for a speedy exit from Gaza.

Meanwhile in a related development in the US, United for Peace 
and Justice and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation 
called for a national week of action June 1-5 to demand that the 
Washington end its military, economic, and diplomatic support for 
Israel's illegal military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza 
Strip, and East Jerusalem.

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Acknowledgements: People's Weekly World Newspaper