***image1***The Occupation is using their supreme courtâs decision as a green light to destroy what little is left of Rafah camp. Starting from yesterday Occupation forces isolated the camp from the rest of Gaza Strip, blocking the main road to Khan Younis with tanks. The Occupation forces are planning a huge incursion with massive destruction including large-scale house demolitions and massacres against Palestinians, if need be. The Occupation forces claim that they want to clear a huge area to secure the border area, which will include the continued construction of a 7 km Iron Wall along the Philidelphia Corridor, as well as related buffer zones, even though this region is the border between the Palestinians and Egypt.
Occupation commanders are stating that this operation could be the last chance to change things in Gaza and create a new reality. The reality to be created is that most of the camp will be destroyed and its residents displaced, most of which are already refugees from the Nakba. This will give the Occupation final control of the Egypt-Gaza border, which has has been their goal since the very beginning. Building walls in the West Bank and Gaza is about putting Palestinians in Israeli controlled prisons. Palestinians are not to have any borders unless they are controlled exclusively by Israelis. However, Israel may consider giving some control to Palestinians under international and Israeli security observation if any of the unfair “peace” agreements will be signed with Palestinians.
Israel is well aware that the only way they can gain control over the border in Rafah is by wiping away most of the camp and ethnically cleansing it of its overcrowded refugee inhabitants.
Before the Israeli courts stopped the demolitions in Rafah on Saturday, May 15, 100 houses were destroyed and 1500 residents turned into refugees for the second time.
Today the Occupation forces renewed their crimes against the camp, declaring that hundreds of houses would be demolished, and thousands of Palestinians to lose their homes. Already more than 73 Palestinians have been killed by the Occupation rockets shelling their houses; with many being buried under the rubble of their homes.
Thousands of Palestinians from the refugee camp will be forced to pay for the Israeli unilateral plan to âevacuateâ the Gaza Strip. Those who supported the unilateral âevacuationâ plan as a step towards âpeaceâ did not stop to think at whose expense it would be carried out. Following the devastation and massacres, many nations will feel the need to move into Gaza, under the auspices of their various Humanitarian Organizations, to clear the remains of the Israeli destruction, to take on the responsibility of burying those Israel has killed, and constructing new refugee camps for those displaced throughout their lives. Action should be taken now rather than easing consciences later.
For Israel, âsecuringâ the borders of the Strip shows just how much they are willing to withdraw from the Strip. Building an Iron Wall on the ruins of the houses of the people and now further isolating the area between the two separated sections of Rafah, has no justification if Israel is really intending to withdraw from the Strip. What Israel wants is to turn the Strip, as well as the West Bank into open air prisons for the Palestinians, where Israelis control the doors to the prisons, while the Palestinian Authority and International Organizations take over the responsibility of feeding those imprisoned.
What is happening in Rafah today is a clear declaration from the Israelis that their security claims and proposed peace plans cannot be built but on the ruins of Palestinian lives, in any part of Palestine.
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