GAZA/WEST BANK: ISRAELI FORCES MOVE OUT OF RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, PALESTINIAN FUNERALS, LATEST.

Record ID: 274692

  • Title: GAZA/WEST BANK: ISRAELI FORCES MOVE OUT OF RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, PALESTINIAN FUNERALS, LATEST.
  • Date: 21st May 2004
  • Summary: (W5) RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP (MAY 21, 2004) (REUTERS) LV/GV: ISRAELI TANKS AND ARMY BULLDOZERS IN RAFAH (5 SHOTS) GV: AID ORGANISATIONS VEHICLE ARRIVING TO SUPPLY FOOD AND CLOTHING (SOUNDBITE) (English) AID ORGANISATION WORKER SAYING: "Well right now the area is closed. People have no water. So that is what we are doing, bringing some water inside for the people who have been
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAFAH AND JABALYA REFUGEE CAMPS, GAZA STRIP/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA5F4ZUXJ3YN98ZQFGXSC4APT0Z
  • Story Text: Israel moves forces out of Gaza refugee camp


    Israel pulled tanks and troops out of Rafah refugee
    camp on Friday (May 21, 2004) under international pressure to end
    three days of fighting in which 41 Palestinians were killed
    and several dozen houses razed.

    An Israeli military source said a "redeployment" was
    under way. Palestinian security sources said most of the
    estimated 100 tanks and other vehicles that rumbled into
    Rafah on Tuesday (May 18) had left but some armour took up
    new positions outside the camp.

    Israeli security sources said a scaled-down force would
    remain in the area, a militant stronghold, for an undefined
    period. Thousands of Palestinians marched in the streets of
    Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza strip to demonstrate against
    Israeli military operation in Rafah. The demonstrators
    chanted anti-Israel slogans and burnt an effigy of U.S.

    President George Bush.

    As the main invasion group withdrew, leaving behind
    torn-up roads and toppled power lines, hundreds of
    residents in Rafah's Brazil neighbourhood returned to find
    some 25 homes had been destroyed while they had taken
    refuge away from the violence.

    In the Tel Sultan neighbourhood, where the army pulled
    out its armour but continued to cut off access roads to the
    rest of the camp, a resident said 10 homes had been
    demolished and dozens damaged. He said there was no power
    or running water.

    The Israeli army, saying it was searching for
    arms-smuggling tunnels dug under the Egypt-Gaza border,
    mounted its biggest Gaza raid in years after militants
    killed 13 soldiers last week.

    It has denied any systematic destruction of buildings
    in Rafah, saying it targeted structures militants used for
    cover or which concealed entrances to tunnels.

    International pressure on Israel to quit the area
    mounted after its forces killed 10 Palestinians at a
    protest march in Rafah on Wednesday (May 19). Troops said
    they did not aim at the rally.

    U.S. President George W. Bush's administration showed
    rare displeasure with Israel by not vetoing a U.N.

    resolution urging an end to the violence.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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