Israel lays waste to Rafah, reports Khaled Amayreh from Gaza On Tuesday, thousands of Israeli troops, backed by tanks, bulldozers and helicopter gunships, ransacked and destroyed large sections of Rafah, at the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip. The wanton rampage of terror, murder and home demolitions began late Monday night with forces converging at the northern Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood amid intensive artillery and aerial bombardment. By midmorning Tuesday, at least 18 Palestinians, most of them innocent civilians and bystanders, were reported killed by Israeli gunfire and Hellfire rockets fired from Apache helicopter gunships hovering over the unprotected town. In one instance, an Apache gunship fired two missiles at a local mosque, killing six worshipers and inflicting extensive damage to the holy site. In another, a second Apache fired one missile on a crowd of terrified civilians, killing five people and badly burning and mutilating nine others. The Israeli occupation army, which had earlier isolated Rafah from the rest of the world, said the purpose of the latest rampage was to "arrest or kill" suspected Palestinian resistance fighters and "locate and destroy" alleged tunnels used by the resistance to smuggle weapons from Egypt. Palestinians dismissed Israeli claims as "cheap pretexts". The real purpose of the latest onslaught, Palestinian officials contend, is to destroy Rafah, demolish hundreds of homes and slaughter as many Palestinians as possible in order to boost Israeli morale. In the past three years, the Israeli occupation army carried out more than 80 incursions into Rafah in which hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed and over 1,000 homes destroyed, all under the rubric of "locating and destroying tunnels". "They are committing a slow-motion holocaust in this city under the pretext of searching for tunnels. The shameful thing is that much of the world is looking on passively while Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto are being re-enacted in Rafah. Shame on this world," said Majdi Zu'rub, a high- ranking Palestinian Authority (PA) official in Rafah. Rafah Governor Majeed Al-Agha described what Israel is doing as "a real holocaust without 'ifs' and 'buts'". "I know that the word holocaust may sound an exaggeration. However, the truth of the matter is that a holocaust is being perpetrated here. I am talking about a Gestapo-like army ganging up on tens of thousands of defenseless men, women and children. I am talking about a barbarian army raping and ransacking an entire city," he added. The current rampage in Rafah comes less than three days after Israeli forces destroyed more than 130 homes in the southern part of the city along the Egyptian border. The demolitions, which took place on the very same day Palestinians were commemorating the 56th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, left thousands of impoverished families homeless, many for the second or third time. Scenes of fleeing women and children grabbing whatever belongings they could carry were prevalent in southern Rafah. In some cases, trigger happy Israeli soldiers mounting tanks and armoured personnel carriers fired on fleeing civilians, killing and maiming a number of them. In at least two instances, Israeli army bulldozers destroyed homes right on top of occupants, killing at least three people whose badly mutilated bodies were only recovered later. Conspicuously gleeful at the gruesome images from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his military commanders vowed to destroy hundreds of additional homes for the purpose of creating "a new reality in Gaza". Some Israeli commanders went as far as threatening the Palestinians of Gaza with "a far worse Nakba ", prompting the PA to call for an emergency session in the UN Security Council to discuss "Israeli atrocities". Some Palestinian officials have also called for the prosecution of Israeli political and military leaders as war criminals. "Those who carry out these brazen war crimes and those who instructed them to do so, including Israeli government officials, should be prosecuted for committing crimes against humanity very much like Nazi leaders and commanders were at the Nuremberg trials," said Hanna Issa, PA deputy minister of justice and professor of international law. He said the PA was collecting evidence and documentation of the "holocaust-like rampage", adding that "when the time comes, we will present this evidence to the International Court of Justice in The Hague." Some Israeli opposition leaders as well as several commentators called the Israeli rampage in Gaza "clear-cut war crimes". At least one prominent Israeli peace activist agreed with Palestinians in calling the latest wave of atrocities in Rafah "a holocaust". Professor Jaff Hapler, head of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, accused Sharon of seeking to destroy Gaza under the rubric of "disengagement". "Rather than disengagement, Sharon's plan is merely imprisoning a million and a half Palestinians while then strengthening the settlements of the West Bank and East Jerusalem," he said. Yossi Sarid, the former leader of Meretz and one of the leaders of the newly established Yahad centre-left party labelled the demolitions "war crimes". "These are clear-cut war crimes that will tarnish Israel's image all over the world," he said. His spokesman, Roel Yolen, told Al-Ahram Weekly "Sharon couldn't have done what he is doing in Rafah without a green light from the Bush administration." Several international bodies, including Amnesty International, have also accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. A report issued by the London-based human rights group described the wholesale destruction of Palestinian homes, farms and infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank as "serious war crimes" and "clear breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. A spokesman for the organisation, Donatella Rovera, described demolitions as "wanton, unnecessary, disproportionate, unjustified and deliberate". Rovera accused Israel of tormenting and punishing Palestinians collectively by destroying their homes and property irrespective of whether they are involved in attacks against Israel. "This is the case with the majority of land and home destruction," Rovera said. It is unlikely, however, that mere criticism, however severe it may be, will make the Israeli government reconsider its bloody approach towards the Palestinians. The reason is very simple. As long as the United States continues to support and bless Israeli behaviour, however egregious and nefarious it may be, Israel feels no pressing need to act otherwise.
