RAFAH DAILY UPDATE (Volume 7)
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Today, the IOF redeployed
in the town of
· International aid agencies, including the ICRC and UNRWA, today successfully entered the Tel Al Sultan neighborhood with food, water and medical supplies. A group of trucks transporting kept waiting at the entrance of the area since morning was finally allowed by IOF to enter. Al Mezan’s fieldworkers, as well as other sources, reported that the residents of Tel Al Sultan neighborhood could not welcome to the aid teams. A resident of the neighborhood contacted al Mezan and reported Israeli forces prevented the wounded from getting help, causing them to bleed to death. Residents of Tel as Sultan criticized the international community for its silence in the face of war crimes.
· Initial field reports from the Tel Al Sultan neighborhood into which IOF carried out an incursion during the past few days said that the neighborhood has become a disaster area. The Center collected data from this area today on several categories:
- Eyewitnesses reported that they saw Palestinian men who had been shot by snipers lying on the ground for hours without help, even though residents called ambulances. The names collected by the Center included: Abdul Salam Abu Iyada, Muhammad Majid Msallam, Ali Khalifa and Sabir Al Haw. The latter died in the street after he sustained an injury in his neck. In other instances, eyewitnesses saw IOF soldiers shooting at ambulance staff and civilians as they tried to collect wounded people.
- The IOF commandeered numerous family homes, particularly those in taller buildings in the neighborhood, causing enormous damage to the walls and furniture. Snipers use these homes as lookouts from which to shoot at people during incursions. A number of these homes were documented by the Center as owned by: Samir Khalifa, Sharif Rusrus, Muhammad An Najjar, Jamal Al Bayumi, Nafith Al Umwasi, Sba’a Awad, Hisham Al Karzoun, Mamhud Abu Hilal, Fathi Abu Ghali, Muhammad Abu Qoura, Ayman Al Bayumi, Zyad Aqil, Ahmad Younis, Abdul Sattar Abu Ghali, and Nadheer Al Luqa. All of these buildings are several stories high and consist of numerous homes for extended families who are then detained in one room of the building during the IOF’s occupation of it. In some cases, soldiers dug holes in the walls and in one case they tore up ground stones and put them into bags to use them as barriers.
- Initial reports conclude that seven streets in the neighborhood were demolished. Their names and lengths are available at the Center.
- An eyewitness told the Center
how an armored bulldozer destroyed a civilian’s car. He said
that a bulldozer hit the car with its claw before carrying it
away. Three municipality maintenance staff people had been in
the car near the water-well in
· An Israeli TV 10 reporter said that the IOF’s claims regarding the destruction in Rafah were false, and that the scale of destruction was beyond belief.
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· An Al-Mezan fieldworker, who managed to enter Al Brazil and As-Salam neighborhood, reported to the Center that the IOF caused widespread destruction to the infrastructure and homes. In interviews with the victims, a number of residents reported that bulldozers started destroying their homes knowing there were people still inside.
· Residents of Rafah said that many IOF snipers still control the taller buildings in Rafah as military presence continues. Eyewitnesses reported the presence of tanks, APCs and helicopters, in addition to armored bulldozers.
· Israeli human rights organizations petitioned to the Israeli High Court to conduct an investigation into the IDF tank shells fired at Rafah protesters, which killed 8 people on Tuesday. They also petitioned the court to stop the IOF’s prevention of medical supplies and staff from entering Rafah, and to stop cutting off electricity and water to the city’s residents. The Israeli army said it did not obstruct medical assistance during its operations in Rafah. Al Mezan keeps the names and other information about the medical teams that were either obstructed or attacked by IOF during the incursions. This includes firing at obviously marked ambulances, blocking way of an ambulance and burying parts of it with sand by bulldozers, and not allowing medical staff from evacuating an area under IOF control for long hours following targeting their vehicle. The Center also keeps records of Palestinians who were shot by IOF and denied ambulance services for hours, causing deaths. Moreover, the Center reported earlier that IOF demolished most of the streets in Tel Al Sultan neighborhood, including major parts of the water network. This says that the population cannot have the drinking water through the existing network.
·
The United Nations Undersecretary-General
for Political Affairs said today that the IOF’s demolition of homes in
· Amnesty International asked Israel to ‘promptly carry out a thorough and independent investigation into the killing of eight Palestinians, four of them children, and the injury of dozens of others by the Israeli army during a demonstration in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, on 19 May 2004’ the organization said in a public statement today that its own delegates ‘were in the vicinity of the demonstration at the time of the incident’ and that they did not see any Palestinian armed men in the civilian demonstration and they that ‘did not hear any Palestinian fire prior to or following the Israeli army shelling’. The organization said also that it was imperative that a ‘thorough and independent investigation be promptly carried out by the Israeli judicial authorities’, especially in light of ‘a pattern of inadequate investigations or lack of investigations into unlawful killings and excessive use of force by the Israeli security forces resulting in death or injury to Palestinians’. It called for the ‘scope, methods and findings of the investigation must be made public and those responsible for human rights violations must be brought to justice’.
· An Israeli human rights organization B`Tselem, which focuses its work on monitoring human rights violations in the OPT, said today that IOF destroyed 62 homes in Brazil and As Salam areas of Rafah in last 48 hours. Further, Al Mezan’s fieldworker visited the area today and said that the number was much higher and that he saw 61 homes that were completely destroyed or damaged beyond repair and 35 others partially destroyed in the two neighborhoods. In the areas closer to the border, where IOF tanks are still stationed, there are numerous other demolished homes, but the number is still unknown. The number of people who occupied the documented homes is approximately 1,115.
- List of the 41 Palestinians killed in IOF’s first and second days operation in Rafah:
No. Name Age Cause of death
1. Muhammad Khalil Al Jindi 24 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
2. Walid Mousa Abu Jazar 27 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
3. Muhammad Abdul Rahman An Nawajha 27 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
4. Hany Muhammad Qufeh 17 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
5. Tariq Ahmad Sheikh Al Eid 24 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
6. Ibrahim Ismail Al Bal’awi 18 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
7. Ismail Al Bal’awi (previous person’s father) 45 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
8. Muhammad Jasir Al Shair 17 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
9. Ahmad Jasir Al Shair (previous person’s brother) 18 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
10. Zyad Hussain Shanana 22 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
11. Imad Fadel Al Mghari 34 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
12. Mahmud Ismail Abu Touq 34 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
13. Yousif Zahi Qahwash 25 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
14. Saeed Ibrahim Al Mghaiar 23 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
15. Muhammad Abdullah Darweesh 27 Missile shrapnel in different parts of the body
16. Ahmad Muhammad Al Mghaiar 13 A live bullet in the head
17. Asmaa Ahmad Muhammad Al Mghaiar 16 A live bullet in the head
18. Muhammad mas’ud Zourob 33 A live bullet in the abdomen
19. Ibrahim Jihad Al Qun 17 A live bullet in the head
20. Taysir Zaki Kaloub 31 A live bullet in the abdomen
21. Shadi Fayiz Al Mghari 24 A live bullet in the abdomen
22. Usama Abdullah Abu Nasser 24 A live bullet in the head
23. Sabir Ahmad Abu Libdeh 13 A live bullet in the head
24. Khalil Hasan Abu Saad 37 A live bullet in the chest
25. Walid Naji Abu Qamar (Rafah march) 10 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
26. Muhammad Talal Abu Shaar (Rafah march) 20 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
27. Alaa Msallam Sheikh Al Eid (Rafah march) 20 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
28. Mahmud Tariq Mansour (Rafah march) 13 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
29. Fuad Khamis Al Saqqa (Rafah march) 31 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
30. Mubarak Saleem Al Hashash (Rafah march) 10 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
31. Rajab Nimir Barhoum (Rafah march) 17 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
32. Ahmad Jamal Abu Al Saeed (Rafah march) 18 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
33. Mahmud Jamal Al Mghari (Thursday) 21 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
34. Hamid Yasin Bahlul (Thursday) 18 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
35. Mahmud Fathi Deib (Thursday) 22 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
36. Mahmud Najeeb Al Akhras (Thursday) 18 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
37. Wail Muhammad Abu Jazar (Thursday) 18 Shrapnel in different parts of the body
38. Jamal Awad Al Assar (Thursday) 39 A live bullet in the head
39. Muhammad Ibrahim Jaber (Thursday) 27 A live bullet in the abdomen
40. Tamer Youniis Al Arja (Thursday) 3 Trauma following missile attack near his home
41. Khalid Abu Anzeh (Thursday) 37 Shrapnel in different parts of the body (found dead after 15 hours)
42. Ahmad Salih Abu Syam (Friday) 45 A live bullet in the abdomen (injured on 15 May)
End