Israeli troops stormed homes in this Palestinian refugee camp yesterday in an ongoing search for militants and illegal weapons, confining tens of thousands of residents to houses without electricity or water.
The invasion, launched on Tuesday, knocked out electricity in the Rafah refugee camp, home to an estimated 90,000 people, local Palestinian officials said. By yesterday, water service had been halted as well, they said.
Twenty Palestinians -- the highest single-day death toll in more than two years -- were killed on Tuesday, the first day of the army's "Operation Rainbow" offensive. Among the dead were a 16-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother.
PHOTO: EPA
International condemnation mounted against the operation, and the US said it was asking Israel for "clarification." The UN and the EU demanded an end to the incursion, which Israeli security officials said would last at least a week.
The massive invasion, the largest in the Gaza Strip in years, came less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers -- seven in the Rafah area.
Israel said it was targeting armed militants, but Palestinians said many of Tuesday's casualties were civilians.
Palestinians said the teenage brother and sister were killed by an Israeli sniper as they gathered laundry from their rooftop.
But the military said an initial investigation found no Israeli soldiers had fired in that area at the time of the shootings. The military said the two had apparently been killed by a Palestinian bomb aimed at troops.
Early yesterday, the army said it demolished the home of Ibrahim Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad militant it said was responsible for a shooting attack earlier this month that killed a pregnant Israeli woman and her four daughters near a Gaza settlement. Palestinian witnesses said at least three homes were demolished overnight.
Ali Bayomi, a 55-year-old resident of Rafah, said soldiers had arrested two of his cousins and were using the men as human shields as they conducted home searches. He said the soldiers had disguised themselves as Hamas militants before arresting the men. The army did not comment.
Salwa Abu Jazar, a 33-year-old mother of four, said her family got almost no sleep overnight because of the sound of combat helicopters and shooting that echoed through the camp.
"There is no water, no electricity and it is very hard to move inside the house using candles because snipers in the building next door will shoot you," Abu Jazar said.
The army said it had shot and hit two armed men overnight in Rafah. Palestinian residents said one man had been hit in the head and stomach, and the other in the leg. They said ambulances were having difficulty evacuating dead and wounded to the hospitals due to the intense fighting.
The facades of Rafah buildings were riddled with holes from Israeli machine guns. Residents said they sheltered from rocket and gun fire in the innermost rooms of their homes.
Saleem Katib, 25, said his father went to morning prayers early Tuesday and still had not returned. Unable to maneuver back to his house due to the fighting and the military curfew, Katib said his father -- an elderly, sick man -- was holed up near the mosque with other worshippers.
"How can you believe that a man can't reach his home when he is only 20 meters away?" Katib said.
In all, 19 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday by Israeli fire -- 10 in two separate missile strikes and nine by machine-gun fire, said Moawiya Hassanain, a senior Palestinian Health Ministry official. A 20th man was killed while handling explosives.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat denounced the incursion as a "planned massacre."
"What is happening in Rafah is an operation to destroy and to transfer the local Palestinian population, and this must not be accepted, not by the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, nor by the international community," an angry Arafat told reporters at his West Bank compound.
The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by 46 Rafah residents against demolition of their homes, giving the army the right to tear down buildings that could be used for attacking troops.
US President George W. Bush said the violence was "troubling," but said Israel had the right to defend itself from terrorism.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS