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October 17, 2003/Tishri 21 5764, Vol. 56, No. 4
Defense forces sweep Rafah
DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
MORAG, Gaza - When elite Israeli infantry units set off from this settlement-turned-army base in the Gaza Strip last week to hunt for arms-smuggling tunnels in the Rafah refugee camp, their khaki combat kits included an unusual kind of green: the four species of Sukkot.
It was ample evidence that Israeli forces would stay in Rafah, an impoverished city of 70,000 on Gaza's border with Egypt, well into the holiday and possibly beyond.
But the fact that hundreds of Palestinians would be rendered homeless in the raid, while Jews worldwide left their homes to celebrate Sukkot in temporary hut-like dwellings, was an irony even the most hardened com-manders did not expect.
"Ideally, the only sukkot we would be seeing here would be for the bad guys," said an officer in the field, using a Hebrew word that can mean both "tabernacle" and "mourning tent." "But this is turning into another humanitarian sit-uation that, unfortunately, we have no way of avoiding."
After leaving the camp on Oct. 12, Israeli tanks and troops rolled back into Rafah on Oct. 14. Residents were still reeling from three days of fighting there that left eight dead, including two children, and wounded dozens.
The Gaza Strip was the site of more violence Oct. 15, when a massive roadside bomb was detonated beneath a convoy of U.S. vehicles, killing three American security agents and wounding an official from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Farther south, where the Gaza Strip meets the Egyptian border, Israel continued its anti-tunnel operations.
Israeli bulldozers also razed at least eight buildings that had been used as firing positions or to conceal tunnels.
According to Palestinians and officials of the U.N. body administering the camp, UNRWA, scores more struc-tures were destroyed. Israeli military spokesmen said they were hit during intensive clashes with Palestinians disrupting the anti-terror operation.
The result was even more homeless residents.
"Between 1,000 and 2,000 people have been left with nothing whatsoever," UNRWA director Peter Hansen told Reuters. He said the relief agency would find it hard to fund the resettlement of the new Palestinian homeless.
International response to the operation was muted, despite censure from the United Nations and groups such as Amnesty International.
The muted response may have been a sign that other countries are beginning to recognize Rafah's strategic significance as a terrorist stronghold and conduit for arms smuggling from Egypt.
Israel ordered its sweep of Rafah last week after an-nouncing that they suspected Palestinians were trying to bring anti-aircraft missiles through the tunnels.
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