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<font size=3><br><br>
<br><br>
</font><tt>(This is 1948 all over again)<br><br>
<br>
Ha'aretz, May 17, 2004<br><br>
Gazans pile up their belongings and flee <br>
By Amira Hass <br><br>
Rafah residents expect IDF to close in for unrestrained demolition of
<br>
homes <br><br>
RAFAH - The streets of Rafah were filled yesterday evening with
horse-<br>
drawn carts, trucks and pick-ups, all laden to the brim with any and
<br>
every item that the town's residents could remove from their homes -
<br>
mattresses, water tanks taken down from roofs, clothes, blankets, <br>
doors and windows removed from their hinges, dismantled beds and <br>
closets, school books, tin and asbestos sheeting, baby carriages, <br>
refrigerators, gas canisters and more. <br><br>
Everyone living up to 300 meters from the border with Egypt and the
<br>
Israel Defense Forces positions and machine guns; everyone who saw <br>
IDF bulldozers raze the homes of his neighbors; everyone who could <br>
and had not yet cleared his home of its contents; everyone living <br>
close to the site where an IDF armored personnel carrier was blown up
<br>
last Wednesday - all hastily packed up their belongings. And when the
<br>
loading was completed, the women sat at the entrances to the homes,
<br>
on concrete blocks or plastic chairs, and watched the vehicles roll
<br>
north, to neighborhoods far from the bulldozers.<br><br>
The families who petitioned the High Court of Justice this weekend <br>
against the house demolitions also emptied their homes yesterday. On
<br>
Saturday, after the High Court issued a "qualified temporary <br>
injunction" that stopped the IDF "from carrying out planned
<br>
demolitions of any of the homes of the petitioners," there were
those <br>
who felt a sense of reprieve. One of the petitioners, a big man, <br>
burst into tears unashamedly in public on hearing the High Court <br>
order. But yesterday morning, after the High Court hastily rejected
<br>
the petitions, the petitioners understood that they had better try to
<br>
at least save the contents of their homes.<br><br>
Such was the understanding, for example, of Massad and Ahlam Kishta,
<br>
and Fauzi a-Sha'ar - two of the petitioners. They live on Abu Jamal
<br>
Street, between Salah a-Din Street and Harakevet Street, under the <br>
eyes of the IDF's Termit outpost. Yesterday at 6 P.M., their homes <br>
were practically empty.<br><br>
The Kishta and a-Sha'ar families are two of the original clans of the
<br>
area, not refugee families. Their homes were built on their privately
<br>
owned land, where some 40-50 years ago they cultivated vegetables and
<br>
watermelons. The Kishta family father moved to the area in 1956; and
<br>
in the 1980s, the Kishtas began gradually building a concrete home <br>
for the expanding family.<br><br>
The Kishta family has stopped counting the number of times IDF <br>
bulldozers, supported by tanks, APCs and helicopters, have demolished
<br>
homes in the area - maybe five, or six. On one occasion, a bulldozer
<br>
destroyed their bedroom, from where they now look out onto the steel
<br>
wall the army is erecting along the border, the Termit outpost, bare
<br>
concrete houses, and piles of rubble between the sand dunes. Last <br>
Thursday, bullets and shells left holes in the walls of their son <br>
Abed's home.<br><br>
On Thursday and Friday, more homes belonging to members of the Kishta
<br>
clan were demolished, when APCs, tanks and helicopters raided the <br>
area. A missile was fired at a group of women; seven people were <br>
killed. Rafah residents vehemently deny IDF claims that the army was
<br>
targeting armed Palestinians. Human rights organizations in the town
<br>
said all those killed were civilians.<br><br>
"Two years ago, they tore down my first house on top of me,"
says one <br>
of the daughters of the a-Sha'ar family. "Now, the moment I heard
<br>
them approaching, I fled."<br><br>
Another a-Sha'ar family member notes, "The IDF says it only <br>
demolishes empty homes. First they chase us out the home with heavy
<br>
fire, and then they can demolish it because it's empty. Do they want
<br>
us to remain in the house while they are shelling it so that they <br>
won't destroy it?"<br><br>
According to a rumor that began to spread last night, the IDF is <br>
planning to close off the road between Gaza City and Rafah over the
<br>
next three days. A number of people see this a sign that the <br>
demolition work will be renewed - under the cover of a blackout from
<br>
the entire world.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
</tt><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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