Reuters • Agence France Presse

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, 26 May 2004 — The Israeli Army destroyed 45 Palestinian buildings, making 575 people homeless, during a six-day operation in a refugee camp in southern Gaza, the UN relief agency UNRWA said yesterday. Human rights groups initially estimated that the army had demolished 180 buildings in the Rafah camp, a militant stronghold.

But the Israeli Army said in a statement that “approximately 56 structures” had been destroyed, whereas an AFP correspondent reported that more than 100 buildings had been either razed to the ground or were now too dangerous to live in.

UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency, also said Israeli forces had destroyed a total of 155 buildings in Rafah over the past month, leaving 1,960 people homeless. It described the period as one of the most destructive in Rafah since a Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.

The Israeli Army said its forces destroyed or badly damaged 56 “structures” in Rafah, including homes, warehouses and gunmen’s posts, in the latest raids. Israel came under intensive international criticism for its actions in Rafah during the operation.

Residents of Rafah yesterday surveyed the devastation that also left more than 40 people dead. The Israeli press suggested the cost of the offensive in the impoverished town may have been too high. The Brazil neighborhood, which backs on to the border with Egypt, resembled the aftermath of an earthquake as Palestinian bulldozers went to work in a bid to tidy up some of the mess left by the Israelis.

Hassan Tahrawi’s house was one of the few that had been left intact in the Brazil district, but as he gazed at the piles of rubble all around his home, he found little comfort. “My house is not destroyed yet, thanks be to God, but how can anyone live here anymore?” he asked. “How do I feel? Ask my blood pressure. We are suffering too much.”

The Israeli press yesterday questioned what had been achieved by the Rafah operation, saying the downsides might outweigh the benefits. “The cost of the operation was high,” the Ma’ariv daily said in an analysis, arguing that the fact that Israel withdrew from Rafah under international pressure over civilian deaths meant the raid was “to a large degree a failure”.

“The harsh pictures of demolished homes in Rafah with their wretched owners among the ruins touched the hearts of many, including in Israel, and made it clear to the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) that the scope of its legitimacy for drastic actions is limited,” the daily said. One officer who took part in the operation told Ma’ariv: “We behaved like a bull in a china shop in Rafah.”

Meanwhile, Israeli government sources told the Haaretz newspaper that Egypt was ready to play a more significant security role in the Gaza Strip after a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory.