GAZA: ARMED PALESTINIAN MEN GATHER AS ISRAELI TROOPS RE-ENTER RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP IN GAZA

Record ID: 400168

  • Title: GAZA: ARMED PALESTINIAN MEN GATHER AS ISRAELI TROOPS RE-ENTER RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP IN GAZA
  • Date: 14th October 2003
  • Summary: RAFAH, GAZA (OCTOBER 14, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV PALESTINIAN MEN GATHERED ON STREET IN RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. LV TWO PALESTINIAN MEN ARMED WITH GUNS RUNNING DOWN STREET 0.17 3. SLV AMBULANCE (AUDIO OF GUNFIRE) 0.23 4. LV PALESTINIAN MEN MILLING AROUND ON STREET 0.31 5. SLV ARMED PALESTINIAN MEN LOOKING AROUND COR
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAFAH, GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA4UW325O2F56FW8EII659FPHMX
  • Story Text: Armed Palestinian men gather as Israeli troops
    re-enter Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.



    Armed Palestinian men gathered on the streets of
    Rafah refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday (October 14) after
    Israeli troops and armour rolled back into the camp.

    The Israeli troops and armour re-entered the camp
    earlier on Tuesday in an apparent resumption of what the
    army had called an open-ended operation to uncover
    arms-smuggling tunnels.

    Palestinian witnesses said at least 40 tanks and
    armoured personnel carriers entered Rafah, a militant
    bastion on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, from its
    Salaam and Uraiba districts, encountering little
    resistance.

    Gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces entering the
    camp on Tuesday, and armed, masked Palestinian men could be
    seen gathering on the street.

    Hospital sources said at least three Palestinians were
    wounded in Tuesday's incursion.

    The pre-dawn raid followed a three-day Israeli
    operation that wound down on Sunday (October 12), leaving
    eight Palestinians dead and more than 1,000 people
    homeless.

    U.N. relief officials said 114 homes were flattened
    during the earlier raid, the deepest into the camp in six
    months.

    Rafah sees intensive arms smuggling by Palestinians
    waging a more than three-year-old uprising for
    independence. Gaza was captured by Israel along with the
    West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.

    Israeli officials last week accused Rafah militants of
    trying to acquire shoulder-launched missiles that could end
    up in the West Bank and threaten civilian aircraft.

    But while the army said it discovered and destroyed
    three tunnels from nearby Egypt in the first raid, no such
    ordnance was found.


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