Residents of Rafah -- the town on Egypt's border with Gaza -- often find themselves suffering the consequences of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Reem Nafie takes a tour Near the asphalt border separating the Egyptian city of Rafah from the Palestinian city with the same name, 10 homes remain abandoned, as they have been since the second Intifada broke out in 2000. The mud-brick houses were once packed with families that decided that the destructive Israeli raids on the Palestinian city just across the border were way too close for comfort. They left their long-time homes and moved closer to the town centre, leaving the border area void of residents. In between two of the deserted houses, Saadiya Ismail, an old woman selling fruit, sat there gazing into the void. With customers few and far between, Ismail was clearly not that interested in doing a brisk business. Her main concern, she said, was to keep tabs on the festering conflict next door. "As long as the war is part of Palestinian life, Egyptians in Rafah will always live in fear of bombs destroying us as well," Ismail said. She said she, however, was not afraid of the "destruction happening on the other side", and preferred to see it first hand rather than hear about it in the newspapers and on TV. While last week was relatively calm in Rafah, Ismail was amongst the many who clearly heard the destruction that rained down on the Palestinian town of Rafah on 18 May. The start of a six-day operation code named Rainbow by Israel, the incursion was launched after Israel claimed weapons were being smuggled through underground tunnels across the border with Egypt. Israel claimed that the operation successfully uncovered and destroyed three smuggling tunnels used by militants. It was the largest operation staged by Israel since the Intifada began in September 2000 -- an explicit retaliation for the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers at the hands of Palestinians in Rafah and Gaza City the week before. Those living in the Egyptian town of Rafah were horrified by the wanton destruction perpetrated by the Israelis on the Palestinian border town. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), 575 Rafah residents were left homeless as a result of "Operation Rainbow". A total of 1,960 residents have lost their homes since 1 May. As is the case every time there is a raid on the Palestinian Rafah, security measures are ramped up, making it impossible for anyone to cross the border. Crossing over to the other side -- albeit mostly in a covert manner -- either to visit relatives or do business, has always been a fundamental part of daily life for residents of the Egyptian Rafah. Well-known families -- such as the Azazma and Sawarka -- living in the Egyptian town have relatives, cousins or in-laws on the other side of the border. According to a member of the Azazma family, "before the 2000 Intifada, some of us could cross the border if we bribed the Israelis or if we had good connections with them." After the Intifada, however, the "security measures increased", and "no one is allowed to go to the other side." He explained that his wife's mother lives on the other side, and that she is unable to see her, while he hasn't seen his brother, who is married to a Palestinian on the other side of the border, for four years. The descendants of refugees from the 1948 War mainly populate the Gaza Strip. That war led to an exodus of Palestinians -- around 900,000 registered refugees -- to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and other Arab countries. More than half moved to refugee camps in the Palestinian city of Rafah, camps that have evolved over time into densely populated neighbourhoods. Around 90,000 refugees moved to the Egyptian town of Rafah. An electric barbed wire fence featuring a watch point monitored by multinational UN peace-keepers separates the two Rafahs. According to the 1979 Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty, Egypt is limited to deploying only armed policemen along its borders. Israel is similarly bound not to deploy tanks along the corridor separating Gaza from Egypt. The treaty specifies that if any border disagreements occur between Israel and Egypt, the United States will step in as an arbiter. Camps in the Egyptian town of Rafah are named after countries like Brazil and Canada. These names date back to before the June 1967 six-day war, when Brazilian UN- affiliated troops were stationed there to separate Israeli and Egyptian forces along the border. Canadians in the UN force referred to their camp as Canada as a joke -- the soldiers left, but the name stuck. With the increased tension of the past few years, the brisk business that had been conducted between merchants from the two Rafahs has also slowed down. Said Gaber, a grocer on Salaheddin Street, one of Rafah's main thoroughfares, said, "I used to export cigarettes and canned food to the other side, and I used to make money doing that, more than I make selling to the locals." Gaber said grocers were permitted to cross over to the other side after being thoroughly checked at the borders. During Israeli raids, however, the borders are sealed for a few months, and even after the raids "no one is permitted to cross", even those "who make a living out of it". Those who used to subsist on odd jobs, including driving lorries, carrying goods and taking orders from the Palestinian side, have also been forced out of business. Mohamed Rifqi, who used to haul supplies for people crossing the border, now spends his days just sitting in front of Gaber's grocery with nothing to do. Rifqi "has not worked for a couple of weeks", and has no means to support his two children. These days the conversations on the street and in the town's coffee shops centre on the mounting concerns of Rafah's residents. Talk of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza is met with scepticism. "If the Israelis pull out of Gaza, the Egyptian town of Rafah will become even more strategic," said engineer Saad El-Essawi, and the people of Rafah will be burdened by a "huge responsibility. Moving in and out of the city will be impossible, and all those people who want to cross to the other side can forget about it." Rafah residents seem to be resigned to a fate that doesn't look to improve anytime soon. If anything, the most recent Israeli measures on the Palestinian side look to make it even more difficult for the two Rafahs to co-exist as before. Israel has dug a three-foot deep underground fence along the border, fortifying it with explosives. Israel has also spoken of constructing a canal parallel to the border, which would fill with sea water and flood any tunnels residents tried to build to get to the others side. That kind of large-scale operation, however, would require Egypt's approval as well as a revision of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. Tampering with the treaty may confront Israel with a set of sacrifices they might not be willing to make.
