13 November

During a funeral, sad moments when 18 civilans were killed at once

Palestinian children, Rima Athamneh , 1, and Ala Athamneh , 1, were killed by the Israeli tank shells in gaza togather with most of their family

Palestinian woman walking by a wall riddled with bullets and tank shells in Beit Hanoun

Mosque demolished by the Israeli bullodozers

“How long will Israel be allowed to continue to kill our women, children and old men inside their houses, villages and camps? How long should we continue to be slaughtered while the world watches?” asked Ms. Al Atamneh, one of the survivors of a family recently killed by Israeli Occupation Forces. Through a veil of tears, she then showed the damage to her house caused by Israeli tank shells. “Where is the world, God? Why are we getting killed? My little nephew, Amjad, while sleeping, was killed by the Israelis right here,” she said crying and pointing to where his bed was.

“The child was simply sleeping, possibly having a nice dream. But he never woke up. Neither were ambulance workers allowed to reach him even if there was any hope of saving him. Amjad’s arm was missing. No one could find it.”

Amjad’s younger sister was murdered by Israeli soldiers using rockets as well. Unites States made and paid tank shells splattered her little body all over the house. Her brains were all over her bed. Fingers, arms, legs and pieces of human flesh were all over the place.

"No one can believe the image—I tried to help, but I was also injured in my leg, but everyone is dead by the tank shells which hit all the child and every body, even my mother who's 70 years old woman, a woman who lived peacefully and have nothing to do with the army, she got killed, she did nothing, nothing, nothing, but she got killed by the Israeli tank shell" she added.

Even the animals, cows and goats were killed by the attack when the Israeli bulldozers demolished a small animal farm of the family. The Israeli soldiers also destroyed the van of her father which cost 11 Jordanian Deinar. She said even that would be fine as long as our children and we survive.

"I can believe it, my own mother who raise me, there was a moment where I was not able to see even look at her before she got buried" the young woman said crying. She was obviously angry. " It's not only the tanks shells, but also the drone planes which hit our house from all over see here, look here and there and see our lives—see the wholes and the damaged furniture, look at the blood in the walls, see even the Palestinian flag is a witness on the crimes"

She continued talking with a tone of anger and stress. What really angered her is the fact that the Israelis knew there were children in the house. “It was one day when the soldiers were inside our home and they imposed siege on us, they didn’t let us go out and they kept telling us to shut up or they were going to shoot us. The soldiers purposely kept scaring the children by pointing their weapons at them. The children were not even allowed to go to the bathroom while the soldiers were there.” Holding a Palestinian flag in her hands she said, “This is the reason we are being killed, we are Palestinians. The soldiers are angry because we have the flag of our country.” The Israeli soldiers told her they did not want Palestinians to live. While crying, she put the bullet-ridden Palestinian flag back on the wall saying, “But Israel who kills innocents will not kill the spirit of the Palestinians who remain alive. Shame on America which provides Israel with weapons. Shame on America for remaining silent while their Israeli allies murder innocent civilians and commit crimes against humanity. She then prepared to go to another one of many funerals in occupied Palestine.

Sudden strange shelling, shooting, bombing.. Where from?

No one knows from where these bullets are coming from.

Yesterday at 12 p.m., most of the areas had no electricity because of shelling.. People were leaving their houses, and many groups of women were leaving their houses even forgetting their children.

A red line appears in the dark sky and explodes in a house, and ambulances begin transferring more and more children at first, then when the area was surrounded by tanks and bulldozers they were unable to get to the injured people who were shot by the apaches and the tanks..

It was not enough for the Israeli army to kill her 12 year old, now they also demolished her house.. Her name is Hanan Abu Anza, a woman with 7 children. She was leaving her home when they killed her child a few days ago, and now her house is being demolished by Israeli bulldozers..

Soldiers are just shooting and shelling children, women and old men.. demolishing a large number of houses.. it seems like these bulldozers do not have drivers. How come? When a women is weeping and waving her white sheet to the bulldozer yet the bulldozer still does not respond to her.. This is what happened to Hana Abu Anza, when she tried to get out of her home to a safe place yesterday in Block O area..

The situations wasn’t so much different in other parts of Rafah like East Rafah, where they demolished five houses two days ago, killed an old man and arrested another, in addition to demolishing a large number of houses.

click here for photos

Hay Al Salam also was attacked, and it was the worst day for the people who are living there.. Ehab Al Arjja, Kahlil Al Aker and his uncle and son Alaa were victims of the Israeli soldiers. They planted their orange and olive trees for a year, but they were unable to reap it, as their houses, trees, and properties were demolished.. Ala Al Aker’s wife and her aunt were arrested by the Israeli soldiers in that attack when they was decided not to leave their houses..

The attack is still continuing as I write. Block area refugee camp is still under curfew and attack. The soldiers are shooting at a large number of people.. Dr. Al Mussa, the Director of Abu Yousif Al Najjar hospital said: ”There is a large number of injured people right now and we are unable to get our ambulances into those areas because Israelis soldiers are targeting us with their snipers”

This is life in the Rafah Refugee Camp..The ”bullet” is the language of the Israeli soldiers..

The attack is still continuing since yesterday night, and there is a large number of injured people, demolished homes, in addition to this old man who died of a heartattack this morning upon hearing the Apaches shelling near his home..

This is the situation in the Rafah Refugee Camps, after invading Yebna Camp in Rafah and demolished all it's houses, after Hai Al Salam area that was also demolished, and after Al Brazil refugee camp had been demolished...



Yesterday they demolished 21 houses, and killed a child, Shadi Abu Anza - 14 years old. He was killed while trying to get out of his house when Israeli bulldozers attacked. Many others were injured in the same attack.

Yes, demolishing houses has become something normal for this world.. demolishing houses means killing dreams. They are demolishing 21 newly built houses right now while the driver of the bulldozer was in his bulldozer and the people were running in the streets. It was raining heavily.

I forget many things, but I can't forget yesterday's attack which still, up till this moment, I cannot erase the image of this women who was carrying her baby child and running in the street about few meters from the Israeli bulldozers. She was running in the heavy rain, and then she stopped in the middle of the street when the small blanket that covered her baby child fell. She stopped to pick her small blanket up from the ground but the bullets were shooting all around her hands.. A question came in my mind during those moments: what did she do to deserve all this torture?

It is now raining in Rafah.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and it is really hard to understand.

Yesterday this man before me was living in his house, but this morning, his life has been completely changed when I found him living in his small tent with no clothes, water, food, electricity or anything.. just the things that they have is this tent that he got from UN which wasn’t able to protect him from the rain or the cold wither..

It is time for you just to feel in the tragedy and how living in tents during winter is going to be.

Abdullah Hussein (29 yrs) works in one of the associations in Gaza City described the checkpoints by saying: "Daily life.. it's as you see ... every day I have to cross this checkpoint and I have so many problems because crossing it means waiting many hours. It depends on the soldiers' mood. If I didn’t go to Gaza and work I will not bring food for my wife and child. Waiting makes me really exhausted."

Abdullah was one of thousands of people who were waiting at Abu Holi checkpoint, and I was waiting with them too.. It is Gaza Strip, the worst place in the entire world. It has professional soldiers with great experience in how to make life miserable for innocent people in Palestine..

Yes, forcing people to take off their clothes, forcing them to sit in cold weather for hours, preventing ambulances from going to hospitals, shooting people while waiting at checkpoints... No words can describe thess soldiers.. They know how to make life miserable for Palestinians. Look at these pictures.





The soldiers choose rush hour when employees, workers, and students leave their work on their way back to their homes.. Yes.. it is 1 o'clock. When I arrived at the checkpoint, I found thousands of people waiting with thousands of vehicles just to cross a few meters that would normally take less than 10 minutes. Naturally because of the checkpoints, they now take several hours if not several nights sleeping here.

I tried to take pictures of these bulldozers that make me lose all hope of ever crossing this checkpoint..





These bulldozers was digging holes in order to prevent Palestinian cars from passing through. I tried to take pictures but two bullets were faster than my third picture. The first bullet came very close to my leg while I saw the smoke of the sand when the second hit the ground about one meter from my leg.

I moved to another area, trying to get other pictures, and I succeeded as you can see.







People lost all hope of getting to their homes now, when the light of the sun was slowly fading. I despaired when I studdenly realized that sleeping at the checkpoint was precisely the soldiers' plan.



In the evening people tried to find water and food but no one found any.. This road was like a jungle place, no markets to sell food and water.. It was hard even when they tried to transfer 8 injured people to the hospital who were injured because of the shooting.

It is now very cold, and it is getting darker.

Thousands of people are lying on the ground.

At the same moment there is so much light in the Israeli military points/settlements, as though it was daylight. .. This is coming from the electricity in the settlements and checkpoints while most of the time there is no electricity in the hospitals and houses of Palestinians..

My mind is crowded with many questions... how long is this suffering going to continue? Does the international community know about those crimes?

This boy is Mawia Youseif, a child whose house was attacked by IDF soldiers and occupied for about 4 days. After the Israeli soldiers withdrew from his house, he found fragments of this rocket and, as you see, I took a picture of him while playing with it —



.....

When visitors of the Rafah refugee Camp saw the camp, they thought that it was struck with an earthquake.









It seems international officials hadn't heard about Rafah. They haven't heard about those children who were seeking water day and night at a time that the Israeli bulldozers and tanks had been demolishing their water stations.



When they took their tour in the area after the partial withdrawal of the IDF, which has been attacking Rafah these past three weeks, they discovered that it's the Israeli Army which has demolished houses, demolished trees, demolished agricultural houses, demolished water stations, demolished electricity stations, cut the phone lines, killed about seventeen people and injured over one hundred twenty-four, most of them were seriously.

Peter Hansen, UNRWA spokesman, was the only person who visited the area and took a tour between the rubble of the houses after the withdrawal from Yebana Refugee Camp. When he saw these crimes he described them by saying: "We have very very significant damage to the refugee camp."



Many people are still unaccounted for and it is not known whether they were demolished together with their houses or were arrested by Israeli soldiers.

Feeling the plight of the people is something easy while walking in the camps which has all turned into rubble.

I interviewed an old woman sitting in one of the tents at sunset and she had her hand on her face. Her name is Um Ali Redwan, a 65 year old woman who has 33 members to her house which had consisted of three floors.



When I asked her about what was wrong, she answered me by saying:

"Thinking! Thinking of this time when I was yesterday with my family living in our house and now I am sitting in this tent which is not protecting me from the cold weather.

This time we lost everything. Children lost their clothes, I lost all my furniture, and all things turned to rubble. In the meantime, everyone is watching us.

My sons and their children have all become homeless, and me and my old husband who is ill also."

The tears began to fall down her cheeks and she said:

"The occupation didn’t respect this white hair...Israeli bulldozer drivers did not respect my old age and my old man's age. How I will be after this?"

Um Ali Radwan, 65 years old, has become homeless.



Tent. This word has become really famous now, spoken about by all the children in Rafah Refugee Camp.

The people go to the moon nowadays while the families in Rafah are still sleeping on the ground even sometimes without beds, just under this white sheet that is called a tent.

They had been living in their homes, but now Israeli bulldozers are partially withdrawing from the area leaving a large numbers of homeless families, and many paralyzed innocent children.

World without hearts, the majority of them have lost their feelings, lost the meaning of humanity...no values nor principles.

My brother...killed in cold blood, amidst international silence.

He was in the house when the Israeli bulldozers and tanks attacked the area and invaded the houses of our neighbors. The street was completely different and the only choices were two: either to get demolished with the house and be killed under the rubble, or to get out of the house and get killed from the shelling and shooting that doesn’t differentiate between child, old women or old man.

All are targeted.



My brother Hussam, 17 years old, was a secondary school student.

He was one of those people who chose not to get killed by being demolished with his body in the rubble of the house, so he went out of the house trying to find shelter or a safe area where he could go to. He went out of the house and immediately got killed by seven evil bullets — bullets of one of those countries who support Israeli army against children.

All American bullets, as the doctors said in the hospital.

In that moment when they killed him with seven American bullets, Wedad Al Ajrami, a 33 year old women, tried to help my brother and get him to the hospital, but they killed her also.

And now both of them have fallen.

Wedad's husband tried to help her but he was injured in his neck and all his body and now he is at the hospital seriously injured. Wedad's son tried to help his mother but they shot him and he also is at the hospital right now. Also the brother of Wedad's husband tried to help but he also got injured by the bullets of the Israeli army.

Five of them fell to the ground one after the other. The ground was full of the blood of all of the five people who were bleeding. The voice of one of the injured people was crying for help but no one heard him because of the shelling from everywhere, even from F16s and Apaches.

The ambulance driver came and it was the same situation: they tried to shoot him.

After a very long time the ambulance driver was able to carry the body of the my brother and the women in addition to three injured people, two of whom were seriously injured.

The moments can't be described when my mother got the news of the murder of my brother.

They were the worst in my whole life...when I saw my brother who was speaking with me a few hours ago, and now his face cold in the refrigerator of the hospital. I tried to talk to him but he wasn’t able to answer me. When I touched his face I began to understand things that I hate very much.

Wedad — what did she do to get killed by Israeli bullets? And now she has left behind four children, one of whom who is a baby child.

My brother got killed with seven evil bullets — why? Those trees that were demolished...those houses — why?

The drivers of the bulldozers and those iron machines didn’t answer the people who were asking the driver of the bulldozer to wait until they get out of their houses. The answer was more shelling — the bulldozers' drivers were in challenges, all of them trying to demolish and kill as many as they can.

Are there any people who hear this call? Are there any people who know about this? Are there any people who care? Are there human rights in Palestine? The questions are so many but they need answers that are not found in this world. In this world, the strong eat the weak...the same as living jungles.

Fingers just writing condolences, tongues just pronouncing all the words to express about sympathy to me WHILE their hands are still supporting Israel in the latest inventions of F16s, F15s, bulldozers and tanks.

So...Is That The Justice that Peace Makers Talk About?!

Mohammad's younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, 17 years old, was killed by the Israeli army today.

Hussam was sitting at home when he was shot in the face, chest, back, legs.

He had nothing to do with any violent or even political movement. Hussam's crime is that he was a Palestinian.

The IDF attacked Hai Al Salam area in Rafah with a very large number of tanks and bulldozers.

They demolished many houses and shot many people.

In addition they arrested four people with their father in the same area.

The Apaches are circling the Rafah sky all the time, shelling homes. This operation will be the same as they did in Yebna camps.

The number of demolished homes is 40.

Also, thousands of people have gathered in a very large demonstration under the Israeli Apache in solidarity with the families whose homes have been demolished in Rafah.

They are asking the relief foundations to help the homeless families...

But no response from any one.

The IDF blocked the UNRWA clinic which is located in the Yebna camp. This clinic assists and serves people in these hard times.

They demolished clothes shops located near the clinic, in addition to burning a supermarket. The area is completely closed by the bulldozers and tanks.

Right now they just killed 19 year old Zaki Al Sharif. He was killed while standing near his home in Block J area west Rafah.

Four other people were injured at the same time.

The shelling has been going on and on for three days now.

Dr. Ali Mousa, the director of Abu Yousef Al Najar hospital, said:

"The IDF used massive shells and cannons to cause a large number of injuries and most of the injured people were injured in the head and in sensitive parts of their bodies.

"If that attack is going to continue in this manner, there will be a medical crisis in all the area."

A call from the families in Palestinian Rafah —

A new massacre continues!

The F16s and Apaches are shelling innocent people. Shelling from everywhere. Every place. Every area. They shoot at large numbers of people.

They exploded two houses — the first one belonged to Mohsen Shat, and the other is not known.

In addition they demolished over fifty houses.

It's A REAL call from the families!

I heard one of the women, Um Ahmed saying:

"God we need water. Water, water! My children are going to die between my hands! Water! We need water!

Where are human rights. Where is the UN? and Mr. Anan?

We are being killed using your weapons, it's your weapons — we are all being killed all the time."

Um Ahmed was one of the thousands of people who have not had a drink of water since the morning.

We don’t have food. We can't go to hospitals. We don’t have electricity. We have injured people and cannot transfer them to their homes or hospitals.

The Israeli army announced through megaphones that people must leave the area.

They demolished many thousands of trees.

This is the third day with continuouss electricity blackout which just came back on right now so I am able now to write this.

Most areas have no electricity or water.

This is a real call by the many thousands of people here!

We are all asking for water and bread.

Many journalists have arrived in the area but couldn’t take pictures because the Israelis shot at them many times.

The Journalist Association asked all journalists in all the world to get out and publish about the crimes which the Israelis are committing against civilians.

I didn't take pictures although there are many things here because my camera is still broken since that time when the soldiers surrounded me and other journalists.

3 a.m. — October 9

I am writing this in a rush because I am afraid that the electricity will be off due to the shelling.

Right now, I am looking out of my window and writing. This is a description from my window —

The sky is full of smoke and I can not see anything except a large number of tanks and bulldozers with more F16s and Apaches.. All of these weapons right now..

The sky is covered with airplanes.

Difficult to know where the shooting is coming from.. All of them from every angle they are shooting at people leaving their houses.

Ambulances just came three minutes ago.

Children and women left their homes in their nightgowns and pajamas.

The sound of the tanks and bulldozers is very loud.

Everyone is asking themselves: "what is happening?" And all answer that what is happening is shelling and bulldozers from every direction.

Large groups of families leaving — to where?!!

We will not die in our homes.

No one is asking for help, because no one is answering us. We are all by ourselves.

The shelling is going on and on right now.

It is enough to write this for now, but I will write more if they don’t shell the electricity (power station).

This is the second attack in 48 hours. During the first attack they demolished about eleven houses and killed six people, two of whom were children.

.............

A new massacre against Rafah yesterday and up till these moments.

Over 70 people were injured and another seven were killed in the attack against Rafah by the latest models of F16s, Apaches, tanks and bulldozers.

Since yesterday they have demolished many people's homes. The ambulance men were trying to get out the people who have been under the rubble and other injured people from this early morning's attack.

It was difficult for families to identify their sons.

A 14 year old child had been shot in his head and a part of his head was missing. The ambulance had to transfer him without the head because the Israeli soldiers were shooting at the ambulance men.

Most of the injured were children and women as they were trying to get out of their houses searching for shelter.

Yebna camp has a curfew and if people attempt to go out of their houses, they get shot by soldiers. If they stayed at home they will be demolished with the houses.

Now, many ambulances are trying to get the victims but the soldiers are shooting at ambulances and journalists.

Rafah currently has no food, goods, and other basic needs because the IDF divided Gaza Strip into five separated areas by military checkpoints.

Now it's hard to find milk and pharmacies for babies and children.

The attack is going on and on, and the streets are empty.

Many parents have been searching for their sons and can't find them.

.............

Later in the day, Israeli sources told press people that the attack on Rafah will be for weeks.

Last week, Rafah witnessed all kinds of violence when the IDF demolished fifteen houses in Rafah, Block O area, and another eleven people were injured.

Most of the people left their houses because of the shelling from the F16s, bulldozers and tanks.

Four days ago and in less than four hours, the Israeli bulldozers demolished about twenty-five houses. The houses were demolished while people where living in them.

These crimes are happening amidst international silence and ignoring of human rights in Palestine. It seems that no-one in the world is concerned.

A very large number of bulldozers and tanks divided Rafah and all Gaza Strip into five parts when they closed the main roads.

The Palestinians are now finding other sand roads that, of course, take more time and effort — but the Israeli soldiers blocked even the sand roads.

Many thousands of students were not able to come back from their schools and the Israeli soldiers shot at them with tear gas.

These crimes came one week after the IDF shot a student and his teacher while they were in the class room. The teacher, Ismail Awad Mansour (36 years old), is a teacher at Al Omaria school. The student is named Mohammed Haider Al Boji (11 years old).

In addition, another twenty-five students who were transferred to the hospital because of the tear gas. It was a game that the soldiers played...

Israeli soldiers shot a man, Saeed Abu Azoom. An Israeli bulldozer then killed him when he was returning from the European hospital to his house.

They also shot three people — one of them is a five year old child.

Due to the last policy of dividing Gaza Strip and Rafah, most of the people were not able to get to the hospital.

This morning, ambulances were waiting to cross the new checkpoints. Over five ambulances had women who were about to give birth and couldn’t reach the hospitals.

In addition there were injured people who couldn’t arrive at the hospitals for urgent operations.

The soldiers shot one of the ambulances and threw tear gas near the students and the people who spent last night at the checkpoints, awaiting the permission of Israeli soldiers to go to their houses.

The IDF broke into Rafah Camps, and especially in Yebna camp about 500 meters from the border line. It was a different night.

The soldiers seemed to forget their fingers on their triggers. Shooting continued more than two hours and a half.

More than 7 people were injured. They were among the victims who had left their homes that had been attacked as they were sleeping.

Most of them got out in their sleeping clothes because there was no time. One minute waiting meant that they would get demolished with their houses. It's the same every night like that..

In that attack, about 16 people were injured.

Mohammed Hamdan, a 13 year old, was killed. He was injured with one bullet in his leg, and when he tried to walk the soldiers shot him again.

Three hours later they found him lying dead near his house.

Monir Kasas, 14 years old, was surrounded by tanks and bulldozers as he was holding a white flag to show the soldiers that he wanted to leave the house, but they still shot him and he fell on the ground with his white flag which was mixed with his blood.

The soldiers began shooting using cannons that are normally used to damage huge buldings and houses.

They shot about 8 people who were then transferred to the European Hospital in Gaza. Most of the injured lost some limbs.

A very large number of houses have been demolished by the time the IDF tanks withdrew.

The families went to see their homes, and found most of them demolished with all their furniture and belongings. The families as usual began sleeping in tents, flats and in UNRWA schools…

This crime just came a few hours after a game that Israeli soldiers had been playing — it was an entertainment game when the soldiers began sniping the Tal Al Sultan Primary School.

They shot an 8 year old student and a teacher.

In addition, more than 25 students were transferred to the hospital because of tear gas as a result of that entertainment game.

Israeli soldiers decided to close the school and naturally it is closed now. Even if it opens again the children would prefer not to go when there is shooting directed against them.

Sorry, I have no pictures to attach to this report because my camera was broken in one of the attacks last week.

I broke my camera when I fell down as I was running, and am now limping.

4:20 p.m. — September 18

Now it's 4:20 in the evening, Tuesday.

Two white Israeli trucks brought new tanks and bulldozers from Khan Younis City.

The shelling just began five minutes ago. It was directed towards cars and citizens who were walking in the streets in Tal Al Sultan area in Rafah City, south of Gaza Strip.

12:00 a.m. — September 19

Sixteen tanks and 6 bulldozers just arrived right now, at 12 midnight in Block J in Rafah.

The people as usual were sleeping despite of shelling, shooting, lack of water and other environmental problems.

Now two Israeli Apaches just came into the Rafah sky with the other watching plane which can't be seen, as this one didn’t leave the Rafah sky every night for the past 3 years.

Now I see the sky full of shelling. It has become red.

People are rushing, children are crying, and women are rushing out quickly from their houses wearing their sleeping clothes.

Ambulances are coming, and I see the faces of people terrorized, yet also relieved that help is coming now.

I don’t understand why people are leaving their homes.

When I asked one of the people what was happening, he was running away quickly as he said to me one word: "Incursion." This word means that the IDF will attack the houses and demolish them.

I am trying to go to see other families.

Now, I see a child about 6 years or so, just crying and shouting saying, "Mother! Mother!"

His mother wasn’t with him, but she was running in front of him about 10 meters. She said, "Ala'a, come on! Come on! Come on! I'm here, come on!" She was running and running and leaving her child who still saying "Mother! Mother! Mother!"

The shelling began and the people were all running more and more. Even the ambulance men were leaving the area because of the shelling.

12:50 a.m.

Now it's about 12:50 a.m., and a very large explosion just occurred.

Now I can't write anything because the electricity was just cut out when they bombed the house situated about 250 meters from the border line which divides Rafah and Egypt.

I can't see anything now.

No light. Just the light of the bulldozers and the light of the bullets in the sky.

It was a very tough moment because everyone was leaving the area, including the relief agencies and the journalists.

2:20 a.m.

At 2:30 we heard shelling and shooting in another area called Hai Al Salam neighborhood, and also in Al Brazil refugee Camp. Rachel Corrie's parents are in this area visiting the families whom Rachel had visted before the Israelis killed her.

There were also another 16 tanks and 3 bulldozers in Block J area.

I can't write or describe and take pictures without electricity, so I intend to come back and see the result of the Israeli attack in Block J when the light comes back on.

Now I moved to Hai Al Salm and Al Brazil refugee camps which is also under attack.

I found a group of soldiers attacking houses and shooting furniture, in addition to searching the houses.

All the people in Rafah area are not sleeping now, because it's hard to sleep with shelling, shooting and bombing.

Now a very loud explosion occured. It was a rocket that they shot into one of the buildings in the Camp.

4:00 a.m.

The shelling and shooting are continuing till this moment which is 4:00 o'clock in the morning.

The IDF Apaches just withdrew but the watching one is still in the sky.

The shelling from the tanks are going on and on, and people who are living in other houses are just sitting in the streets because it is hard for them to sleep while Israeli bulldozers are demolishing houses.

4:40 a.m.

Now, it's 4:40 in the morning.

Israeli bulldozers and tanks are withdrawing.

.....

I intend to go and see what they did, but it's hard because I know that they put explosives after they left the area so it will kill the people who came after them and saw what they did.

I went to Block J...

Now, I'm going to Block J again. This area has no electricity, but I can interview people and take pictures from the area.



I found the Israeli bulldozers still demolishing trees and working inside the iron wall which is the border that they have been creating for the past two years.



6:20 a.m.

Now it's about 6:20.

The Israeli bulldozers and tanks just left now, and also the watching plane just left with them...but when I moved a few meters to the area where they had been, I noticed there was one tank which had no sound and no movement.

The tank noticed the families coming back to see their houses and what had happened to them. The tank shot about 4 or 5 bullets and in less than one minute all the people left again.

When I heard the sound of the tank leave, I went again and saw the people returning once more. There were about five people who were before me in the areas, two of whom were women.

I saw a woman shouting and saying "My house!" and she fell down on the ground.

I went quickly to her and found her on the ground weeping because she didn’t find her house. It was rubble.

Ambulances, journalists, photographers and everyone else just came to Block J area.

I just began to write again.

The ambulance driver found an injured man, a 24 year old taxi driver called Ramzi Al Raie. He had injuries in his head, belly, and in different parts of his body.

Another was also injured called Abu Yousif Al Najar. Doctors described his injuries as very serious.

Also there were two houses demolished in this area, and another which was a factory that made cement for buildings. The factory belonged to Al Hlkawi family from Rafah, Block J.

The houses that were demolished belonged to Majdi Shaut and Samer Abu Naja from West Rafah.

7:30 a.m. onward

Now it's 7:30 and I see an 11 year old child called Ahmed wearing a black blouse and red shorts. He wasn't wearing any shoes. He was busy trying to get something from the rubble.

When I asked him what he was doing he answered: "I want to get out my bicycle from the rubble."

I asked him if he went to school, he said: "Yes".

I said to him "Now it's 8:45 and you didn’t go to school yet, so why is that?"

He said "Because I lost my school bag and clothes in the rubble when the Israelis demolished our house."

During this time the UNRWA officers just came to record the families whose homes had been demolished in order to deliver them tents and food.

Also now I see many journalists who were reporting and interviewing people.

I'm asking the woman whose house had been demolished, why they demolished her house, and what were her feelings.

She answered me in tears saying: "We had been living in this house for more than 20 years now, and now, in a few hours we lost it all. All our dreams have gone by this bulldozer! They demolished our houses because they are building a new border here. They demolished more than 24 houses in the last four days, and two of them belonged to our relatives.

"They demolished them while we were living in them and they are saying because of tunnels, but we don’t have tunnels. We are a family who is far away from tunnels, about 250 meters from the border line and they built the border line, so why did they demolish our house? Is that because we have no human rights like other countries?

"Where are 'human rights'? You are all saying 'human rights' and journalists talking about it and repeating it every day, so is demolishing our house one of the 'human rights' that you all speaking about?"

I promised to deliver her message out of Palestine.

The children are trying to get some things from the rubble but they can't because everything has been demolished and turned to rubble.

Now there are a few members from the International Solidarity Movement. They can not do any thing to protect people because they also get targeted since the Israelis killed the American girl, Rachel Corrie, and the British man Thomas Hurndall, and the British cameraman James Miller.

Now, many hundreds of people are living in small rooms and on streets and in tents. This is because of the large number that has been increasing every day, as many hundreds of people search for flats to rent instead of their houses that had been demolished, but they couldn't find any apartments because they are all full.

Fatema Al Kahteeb School for Refugee Students for Girls: it was a very different moment in this school when the IDF bulldozers and tanks attacked Rafah Camp and demolished more than seventeen houses (three of which were partially demolished).



Eight people were injured, one of them seriously and was transferred to Al Najra hospital in Rafah.

At that time, the students were in their second class when the IDF began shooting. The children left their schools and ran back to their homes.

The same thing happened three hours later in Tal Al Sultan area, when the IDF soldiers shot teargas and the classes of the Tal Al Sultan school, where there are many students under 12 years old [primary school] and all had difficulty breathing.

Also today (Sunday), at about 4 o'clock in the morning, more than fifteen tanks and three bulldozers attacked Block J area in Rafah and demolished seven houses, and partially demolished seven others.

This crime came after less than 48 hours when they demolished another seventeen houses.



The houses that were demolished today belonged to these families: Shat, Al Najdai, Awaja, Barhoum, Abu Hasnin, Al Najar, Al Hums and Al Jazar..innocent families that lost their houses in less than two hours.

Israeli bulldozers can demolish any house they want.

In today's attack, they demolished also the walls of Raba'a Al Adawia primary school for refugees. This is an UNRWA school which has thousands of students.

They demolished the water system networks and the telephone connections in the same area.

When I asked the people about this crime, I didn’t find the usual answer.

They just said: "They demolished houses in our area for no reason while the media is focusing on other issues, because it seems that they are in denial of the Geneva Conventions that support human rights."

Also, today:

It is Sunday morning, 7 o'clock: as usual all the students are supposed to go to their schools, but they found that the schools are closed because there are several protests and demonstrations.

One of the demonstrations was against IDF crimes in Rafah, and the others were to support president Yaseer Arafat.

It is 11:20 pm. I just arrived right now to Rafah coming from Gaza.

I had found the Abu Holi checkpoint closed. Hundreds of cars were waiting and the soldiers did not allow them to enter to their cities and homes.

It is hard, really hard, to move around.

Many people were sitting in every place where there is some shade: tree, walls, and car shades.

I went to the first cars, and taxis, to see why the IDF soldiers were blocking the roads. I held my pen and began writing and describing what was happening. The following is what I wrote:

I see five Israelis jeeps full of soldiers, and two trucks (red and blue), two bulldozers and many soldiers in the land. The soldiers were working and building new checkpoints. They are creating cement blocks.

It is really very hot here and I feel the sun really burning me.

Students are carrying their books and they have them on their heads to protect themselves from the hot sunshine. Many people are sitting near me on this cement block near the bulldozers.

I am trying to find a shade so I can sit and write and describe what I see, but I can't find any because people are everywhere. Most of them are silent, just waiting to cross this checkpoint.

The soldiers are still working now. Two jeeps just came and asked the people to go away. The soldiers began shooting 4 or 5 bullets in the air, but the people are still sitting and no one moved.

The soldiers got out of their jeeps and shot a teargas. I cannot write any more. It's too bad, and I have to leave this area because it will harm my eyes.

I moved a few meters, then the soldier shot another 5 teargases. It hurt my my eyes again, and I have been unable to write or open my eyes for the past five minutes.

Now I opened my eyes and I saw people still putting their hands on their eyes and rubbing them. It is as though they were crying.

This one women made me sad. She cannot walk because she is an old women, so she fell down from the teargas.

The soldiers got back to their work with the trucks and bulldozers.

Now I looked to my right and I saw some farm land that was recently occupied. I turned to the left. There was a group of cars for settlers and Israelis, walking in a very fast way.

I was listening to the man sitting next to me asking for water. I'm very thirsty too and didn’t drink since the morning. It is now 2 o'clock. Everyone is asking for water.

Now a women with her baby child were sitting in one of the shaded areas and she is asking for water for her child who was just waking up from sleep. She is asking everyone for water but she didn’t get it.

People are trying to get water or buy it, but no one is selling their water.

I hear the old man sitting next to me saying to one of the people: "is there any other occupation in the world that deals with people this way?" The other man answered: "yes, we hear about that. It's here in Palestine, where there is an international war against Palestine." One of the other people interrupted and said: "Where are the kind people to see us here at this checkpoint that humiliates us in this manner?"

He did not complete his sentence because they began shooting other teargas, and again, all people began running.



This time the teargas broke the window of an orange Hyundai car and people ran out of it. Gas entered in another white truck and the driver ran out.

The first cars are two ambulances which have two people who need to be in the European and Nasser hospitals.

Now Branine, a journalist for Associated Press News, got many pictures of the bulldozers and tanks. The soldiers shot the teargas and he was the first one to leave the checkpoint because of the teargas.

One of the people just saw me writing and introduced himself. He was from Human Rights Center, and he interviews people. He asked one of the people about the checkpoint, and the man asked him who he was. When he told him he was from the Human Rights Center, the man asked: "are there human rights these days in Palestine?"

Now I see an 11 or 12 year old child wearing a black jeans.

The child was getting closer and closer to the checkpoint and everyone was shouting at him to come back but he didn’t answer.

The soldiers shot a bottle of teargas, and the child carried it and threw it again at the soldiers. I think it was hot in his hand.

The soldiers are hurrying and they got into their jeeps after their eyes got burnt from the teargas that the child threw at them.



A woman began shouting to the child and saying "Mustafa! Mustafa!" She is his mother. He came back to his mother.

Now, it is 8 o'clock.

I can't write and describe any more because of the dark.

I see thousands of lights where settlers and Israelis are working, while on the other side where Palestinians are sitting, we can't turn on lights because it is forbidden.

I hear people complaining to each other and trying to call their families to tell them that they will not come home tonight and that they will sleep at the checkpoint.

At 11 pm, the bulldozers just came and opened one of the cement blocks and they permitted the first cars to enter.

Some people finally passed the checkpoint, but others will spend the night here.

There are a large number of houses now that have been demolished and it seems the media is no longer interested in what is happening to the homeless families.

More than 20 tanks and 5 bulldozers attacked the Rafah area, in Tal Al Sultan which is close to the beach. Two houses were demolished in that attack: Omer Abu Brika's house (41 years old), and his relative's house which had housed more than 4 families.

Hundreds of acres full of olives and orange trees were also demolished last night, in addition to a very big area of agriculture homes. Ahmed Biriak's home and Farouk Burika in Rafah.



Thoria Birika's home, also in Tal Al Sultan, had more than 60 olives trees demolished from her garden.

In the same attack they demolished half the Sindibad wedding party hall, in addition to demolishing other olives trees belonging to Abu Shalouf family.

Eyewitness said that the bulldozers were shooting towards the UNRWA clinic situated in Tal Al Sultan.

Also in yesterday's attack, the IDF soldiers opened their heavy cannons against civilians people and shot Basam Rosros, a 32 year old, and seriously injured him. Ahmed Khader was also wounded but not seriously.

It was a very sad night full of shelling and shooting everywhere from the tanks and bulldozers. The shelling continued until the morning.

I interview Ahmed Douheir (30 years old), and asked him how his house was demolished. He answered:

"Our house is near the border line. When the IDF began to build the border line in 10/06/2003 a group of Israeli bulldozers, and in less than 20 minutes, they demolished our house which was the only house for me and for my children and my brothers. At the same time they demolished my uncle's house Abdel Karim Douhair. It was three floors. They also demolished my other uncle's house, Abdelhadi Duhair, which was four floors. Now, I've just come back everyday to see the rubble of our house as you see me right now! !!"

I also interviewed others like Shehda Zourb (35 years old), Mohammed Redwan,(40 years old)., Mohammed Al Shaier (42 years old) Eiad Barhoum (32 years old ) and so many others, and they all told me how their homes had been demolished by the IDF.

Nothing changed. Everywhere, just turn your eyes, and you will see demolished houses. Now more than three eyewitness said: "we see the IDF trucks bring new bulldozers, tanks, vehicles, and so many jeeps for Tal Al Sultan areas.."

Yesterday about 12 tanks and 5 bulldozers attacked Rafah, with massive interventions of helicopters. This attack was only for the entertainment of the soldiers ... they didn't demolish houses in an organized way, but randomly destroyed everything which was in their way.

The soldiers shoot everyone in the streets, it did not matter if it was a child, an old man, or woman — they shoot at everything, and demolished all the olives trees that they found in their way.



Shelling, shooting, bombing, demolishing houses, demolishing olive trees, killing children while they are going to school...and in summer blocking the clean water, demolishing the water stations, destroying power lines, and demolishing the sewage stations...

Every day, we hear about new crimes in our neighbors' cities.

In Khan Younis City, last night, many people were injured, many houses demolished and many streets were demolished.

The same things happed in Beit Hanon, the city which is under curfew for more than a month. This city suffers from lack of food, water and many things.

So where is the peace activism? Where are these people who speak all the time about peace?

Yesterday, the IDF demolished 5 more houses in Rafah. In the Tal Zoroob area, they attacked with about 20 tanks and 5 bulldozers.

The IDF damaged the electricity stations and power lines — and when the workers come to fix it, they shoot at them, every night, so electricity is a big problem, as well as water supply.

Many people were injured, many of them children.

There is no day without shooting in Block O, Block J, Hay Al Salam, Al Brasel, the airport, Tal Zoroub, and Tal Al Sultan.

This week, there were shootings in Rafah every day and every night, they shot people and many children.. many houses were demolished..

The photo shows one of the demonstrations in Rafah — a demonstration against killing internationals — and it shows a child holding a poster of the British cameraman who was killed in Rafah.



Now there are no international media people in Rafah any more, because cameras became the enemy and target of the IDF...

There were three international peace activists who used to come to Rafah during the past 2 months, but now even they are not allowed to come any more, and so there is nobody any more to face and witness the bulldozers.

A new association was founded in Rafah these days, taking care of women and children, and they called it "Rachael Cori", in honor of the American peace activist who was killed here in Rafah a short time ago...

Last night, more attacks and house demolitions.





Desperation everwhere.

And in addition to this, the never-ending queues at all the many checkpoints, waiting times of many hours.





Yesterday Belinda, a British peace activist, was arrested by the IDF while she tried to prevent a bulldozer from demolishing more houses. The soldiers put handcuffs on her and brought her to an Israeli settlement; there she is still under arrest.

Today more than 60 tanks and bulldozers left Rafah camp, after killing 5 people and more than 30 were injured.



Many houses demolished and many cars also crushed, it was a very bad night since yesterday at 10 PM. Most of the people who were injured are women and children.

A very good article written by a visitor who came to Rafah and describes the situation —

Ma'ariv - weekend supplement 28/3/03.
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html

I was a human shield

By Billie Moskona-Lerman

The death of human rights activist Rachel Corrie, crushed to death while trying to stop an IDF bulldozer, was reason for Billie Moskona-Lerman to go to the Rafah Refugee Camp and to spend 24 hours at the most miserable place in the Gaza Strip. A place where shooting never stops, where shells whistle by the windows, the walls are covered with bloodstains on the walls, houses turn into ruins and people walk the streets barefooted and desperate. She came back a different person. In a rare human document she describes her encounter with death.

With the above words, the weekend supplement of Ma'ariv newspaper (28/3/03) introduced to its readers a report, giving a glimpse of Palestinian daily life which is very rare in the mainstream Israeli press.

I visited hell and I came back in one piece. It happened on the night between Thursday and Friday last week [March 20-21] when I accompanied Joe and Laura, two 20-year old human rights activists, in acting as a human shield facing the IDF. When they asked me do I join in and I answered "yes", I did not fully realize what I was getting myself into. It was my first experience under fire: so close to death, so anonymous, my life so easily abandoned in somebody else's hands. Never did I feel so weak, so defenceless. I did say "I am coming" and we set out. It was 7.30 PM. we walked through the main street of Rafah, a town which is in fact just a big refugee camp. We walked in darkness, through ruins, pot-holes and puddles, torn bits of nylon and plastic, barbed wire and piles of rubbish. Here and there some stores were open. Groups of young boys were walking around us, shouting "Sa'lam Aleikum, Sa'lam Aleikum".

Suddenly, one of them picked up a stone and threw it at us. It flew through the air and fell near us. Joe and Laura were not very disturbed. "We represent for them the American culture which they hate" said Laura.

I vaguely knew that we were walking towards Rafah's border with Egypt. We walked towards the last house in the last row of Rafah houses. The home of Muhammad Jamil Kushta. At a certain stage, after ten minutes of fast walking in empty alleys, we went aside into a long and narrow alley at whose end I could see a big pillar. When we came near I could see it was a tall guard tower.

When we came near the tower, Joe and Laura raised their hands high and signalled to me to do the same. I did as they asked and walked towards the IDF guard tower with my hands high above my head, walking quickly — but not too quickly — through the empty alley. Our clothing was fluorescent orange, with silver strips to make it even more conspicuous in the night. Joe held a big megaphone in one hand and a big phosphorescent sheet in the other. 20 metres from the tower we could see, even in the utter darkness, that we were facing a major fortification — an Israeli strong point at the exact border between Rafah and Egypt.

A few steps before the tower Laura abruptly pushed me into a small, dark entrance and whispered "Quick, it's here". I went over the doorstep, feeling the way with my foot, with the eyes gradually getting used to the sight of of high, dark corridor. Five steps, and my brow hit strongly against a concrete block. Passing under it, I went up ten wining stairs at whose end was a door.

A short ring and the door opened to reveal the smiling face of Muhammad Kushta. Standing in the door, smiling back, I felt relieved that the damned walking was over and that we got to somewhere looking like a hospitable house. I did not realize what kind of night was waiting for me. I had not the slightest idea.

Muhammad Jamil Kushta, whose house we have come to defend, opened the door to see two young human rights activists who had been spending the nights in his home for the past few weeks, plus a woman introducing herself as a french journalist. The French journalist was me, at that moment nobody knew I was actually an Israeli from Tel Aviv. "Tfatdal, Tfatdal" he said as he opened the door, the greeting joined by his young wife Nora holding little Nancy in her hands. It was already a quarter past eight when we all sat down on the floor by the little heater when suddenly it started. A noise which to my ear sounded very very close, a rolling noise, an ear-shattering noise, a noise which sounded like hell. It was the first time that night that the house came under fire, and the first time for me to be under fire. I started shaking. My entire body was shaking. The noise was rolling by my ears like a series of giant fireballs. Shooting, shooting, shooting. I understood this is how an encounter with death looks like. With the first burst Jamil moved his tea glass slightly.

Up and down, up and down. Nora held Nancy tightly. Joe and Laura went to the baby Ibasan who slept in the corner and her brother the young Jamil and crouched over them. It lasted half an hour, and for an hour and half afterwards my body was till shaking. But I did not yet realize it was just the beginning.

I watched Jamil without words and he said: "I goes on like this every night.

For two and a half years". "What are they shooting at?" I asked. "In the air" he shrugged. "Why?" "Out of fear" he said simply. "They are also afraid, alone there in the dark. They are very young". "Why aren't you taking your children elsewhere, away from here?" I asked after getting my voice under control. "I have no money" he answered. "I have no money for another house, every penny I had was invested in these walls, and I got into debt even so".

A Dangerous Game

It is not by chance that over the past few weeks, Laura and Joe are spending their nights in Jamil's house. It is the last house in the row of houses fronting the Egyptian border. Some twenty metres from this house, perhaps less, the IDF built a high fortification, destroyed all houses to the right and left and stationed guns, tanks and mortars targetting the city.

That is why Laura and Joe are sleeping over in Jamil's home. This is the next house in line to be demolished. There is no way for Jamil and the human rights activists to know in advance when the army would come at this house with tanks or D-9 bulldozers — and it will be the job of Laura and Joe to try preventing the IDF from approaching the house. Laura and Joe are members of ISM, International Solidarity Movement, a group of human rights activists who oppose the Israeli occupation through direct non-violent action. They are young, politically motivated university graduates — very extreme and determined pacifists. Their purpose is to prevent the army from harming civilians.

Every night, with the beginning of the curfew, they are spreading in Palestinian homes on the first row, which are exposed to shooting from the military positions. They wear phosphorescent clothing and megaphones. In the midst of firing, or in the face of IDF bulldozers, they emerge to call out in English the text of international conventions and block the soldiers when they come in, shoot, bomb or demolish homes. Until a week ago it worked. They were calling out, warning, shouting, blocked the bulldozers with their bodies — and the army turned back. On Sunday, March 17, all bets were off. What happened found its way to the media of the entire world, caused a storm. A young woman, human rights activist, was killed by an IDF bulldozer which ran over her. Her name was Rachel Corrie, she was 23 years old, and Joe Smith recorded her last moments.

He saw her facing the bulldozer, as was her habit, trying to establish contact with the soldier driving it. A second later she was not visible any more. A cat and mouse game is how members of the human rights group call the dangerous game they are playing with the IDF D-9 bulldozers. When a bulldozer approaches a house marked for destruction, they sit down in their phosphorescent clothing on the mound of earth carried on the giant bulldozer extended front, addressing by megaphone the soldier behind the windows of opaque, reinforced glass. Standing on the front of the bulldozer requires maintaining a very delicate balance, and there comes a moment when you can overturn and fall off. Until the day Rachel was killed, the soldiers did not push things to far. They would always stop and turn back one minute before this could happen. But on that Sunday, the soldier driving the bulldozer did not stop at the critical moment, and Rachel was killed. Joe Smith's photos document, stage by stage, Rachel's folding into death. Like a big strong bird which flies in the sky, gets a blow, squeezes itself and slowly falls down to become a small crumpled heap on the ground. Here is a photo of Rachel standing determined in front of the bulldozer, here she stands on the mound of earth. And here she disappears, she lies on the ground, her mouth open as if trying to say something, Alice crouches over her (later, Alice would quote what she said with her last strength: "My back is broken"), she draws in her two legs, the body lies like a lifeless sack. Rachel is dead.

After her death Rachel became a Shaheed (martyr). From all over the world, media was called upon to interview the group of young people, which had numbered eight and is now reduced to seven. So it was that I also arrived there. A short phone call from my editor, a contact person at the Erez Checkpoint, a taxi, a Palestinian photographer from Gaza, and an emphatic instruction from the contact person: "Nobody must know that you are an Israeli. From now on, you are a French journalist — period".

A bad death I lived with the group for 24 hours. Crazy hours, very frightening, hours of fear and apprehension in which I felt at my nerve endings, a wildly beating heart and wet underwear. I understood what it means to live with death for 24 hours a day. A bad death. With guns, tanks and bulldozers targetting your home, your bedroom, your kitchen, your balcony, your living room. No way of defending yourself, nowhere to run to. At mdnight in Jamil's home, facing the shooting tanks and feeling that these may really be my last moments, I decided to open my cards. I threw aside the instructions not to expose myself because of Hamas and Tanzim and all the others who may murder me at a moment's notice. With a feeling of profound finality I suddenly said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I must tell you the truth. I am an Israeli journalist from Tel Aviv. There was a moment's silence, then Jamil smiled and started speaking in fluent Hebrew: "Welcome, Welcome, Ahalan Ve'sahalan [Arab greeting which became, part of colloquial Hebrew]. I lived for four years on Sokolov Street in Herzlia, I was the shawarma cutter in the Mifgash Ha'Sharon Restaurant. I have also worked on Abba Eban Street in Netanya and at the Hod Hotel in Herzlia Pituach. What I liked most was to eat cherry ice-cream at the Little Tel-Aviv Restaurant. Is it still open?" Rains of ammunition bullets came down on us on that one single night. A single night, for me. The shooting went on continuously from 1.30 to 4.15, near the first light.

Only then it calmed down. My teeth did not stop chattering. "It's verrry near" was the only thing I managed to say for four consecutive hours. Jamil and Nora, with their three babies, tried to calm me. "The soldiers know us, they know we're clear. You hear it so close, because they are shooting at the wall near us". "So they never hit your house itself?" I ask him with an enormous burst of hope. "Oh, sometimes they do. Look at the bullet holes". I raise my head and look to the sides. The ceiling is fool of holes, the side walls are cut up. So is the kitchen wall near the tap, near the table, in the toilet, one centimetre from the children's beds. Some of the holes have been filled up. Every night, once the shooting ends, Jamil closes the bullet holes with white cement. The walls are patchwork, and if you dare approach the window you can see that Jamil and Nora's home is surrounded by ruins on all sides.

Everybody escaped, only he remained because of having no money to take his family away from here. The bullets are whistling and Jamil makes for his family salad and omelettes and bakes pita bread on a traditional tabun oven. The bullets whistle and we are eating. With a good appetite. We bend down whenever the shooting seems to come closer. It is incredible what human beings can get used to, I think. A week ago, Jamil took up a big black marking pen and wrote on a piece of cardboard: "Soldiers, don't shoot please. There are sleeping children here". He wrote in big Hebrew letters, and Rachel Corrie had climbed on the building's outer wall to hang it. Now Rachel's face appears on a Palestinian martyr's poster which hangs on the living room window. Jamil smiles sadly and tells me and my chattering teeth and my clenched hands and my widely beating heart: "What can we do? When Allah decides our time has come to die, we die. It is all in Allah's hands." It does not reassure me.

A stranger among us

24 hours I had lived in the ruined and beleaguered city of Rafah. "Rafah Camp", as both inhabitants and internationals call it. Most of the time, the people which I met did not know I was Israeli. It is important to note this, because the words I heard and the conversations I conducted were not part of an Israeli-Palestinian pingpong. Nobody tried to accuse me, to convince me or to make me understand something which I did not understand before. As far as they were concerned, I was a European journalist. During these 24 hours I did things which could be described as taking a terrible, irresponsible risk, unfitting for a person my age. Still, I am glad I did it.

I feel now that I am not the same person which I was before entering Rafah. A person can grow considerably older in just 24 hours. Now I also understand better the fascination war has for many men. No other human experience, however ecstatic, can make so much adrenalin flow through your veins. But I was mostly concerned trying to understand how it is to live there for more than one day.

My trek had began in Tel-Aviv at 8.30 AM, with the nice friendly taxi driver Yehuda Gubali offering me water and a chewing gum as I got in. He was curious to know what I was looking for at the godforsaken Erez Checkpoint, on such a nice morning. I told him the truth: I was on my way to meet the ISM people. "Oh, I read in the paper about that girl who was killed, what's her name, and let me tell you the truth, I was glad she was killed. Who is that little busybody from America to come and interfere in our affairs? Standing on the bulldozer, really! no wonder she was run over. Let these people learn a lesson. Is this their country?" The sky was grey when I crossed alone the border crossing at Erez, after signing the Army Spokesman's document stating that I take full responsibility for my decision to cross and absolving the army from any responsibility for what may happen to me on the other side. I crossed past the last bunker, waved back to the soldiers, and stood near the rolls of barbed wire to wait for my Palestinian escort, Talal Abu Rahma.

Abu Rahma has taken the photo which symbolizes the current intifada more than any other: the death of the child Muhammad Al-Dura in the arms of his father, during the exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians. Nowadays, Abu Rahma is a very busy man who lives in Gaza and works for foreign networks. He is my official guide, and the first thing he says is: "From this moment, not a single Hebrew word. Even the photographer must not know that you are Israeli. From this moment you are a French journalist". With these words in mind I get into a car heading for Rafah Camp, an hour and half drive from Gaza. We race along the broken Gaza coastal road, in the direction of Khan Yuneis and Rafah. "You see these hotels and restaurants? Once they were all merry, full of life. Now everything is neglected, broken, abandoned." At the "Abu Huly" checkpoint, near the Gush Katif Israeli settlements, we stop.

We wait for the soldiers' permission to proceed. Abu Rahame is an intensive person, i.e. nervous. He lights one cigarette with another. This IDF checkpoint must not be crossed by a car with less than three persons in. On both sides there are children waiting at the roadside. They take one shekel from drivers who take them in their car to fill up the required number, then on the other side they get another shekel from another driver to go the other way. This is their way of of surviving this collapsed economy.

We wait. "Sometimes you have to wait here for three days. Depends on the situation." But this time, we get the permission after half an hour. We go through a beautiful, neglected road, lined by ancient eucalyptus trees. And then we are at Rafah Camp. A big, ruined place. You can hardly call this place, with 140,000 people, a city. Palestinians are unanimous that it is "the poorest, most miserable, most damaged place of all: 250 inhabitants killed in the Intifada, more than 400 houses destroyed. Half of those killed were children."

When I enter the apartment used by "The Internationals" I start feeling that here, especially, I should not identify myself as Israeli. Israeliness, for these young people, represents the worst evil they know: demolition of homes, brutal killings, bulldozers, shooting, tanks, humiliations, hunger and poverty. The young people in the room are not quick to communicate with the French journalist which they think they are meeting. They are tired of the media, they have not yet completely come to terms with the death of their friend, they are not eager to answer questions and they don't particularly care that I have only two hours. I watch the nervously tapping foot of my escort. "Come back for me tomorrow" I suddenly ask him. After a short debate, in which I promise to take very much care of myself, he bids me goodbye with a disapproving look on his face. Joe Smith, the only member of the groups really willing to talk to me, offers to go together to the internet cafe a few steps away, and on the way he tells me how he had come to join the ISM.

Seeping fear

Smith is a 21-year old guy from Kansas City. While in high school he read a book about peace activists and became enthusiastic with the idea. In a political science course he met with Prof. Steve Naber, read Marx and realized his status as a white male, with privileges at the top of the pyramid.

He went to Slovakia, joined anti-globalisation groups and decided that what he most wants to do with his life is to devote it to the weak, to those who don't have the privileges he has. Especially he wants to challenge the dictatorship of the strong which is enforced by his own government, which is how he got to the Rafah group. While talking we get to the internet cafe in the city center, where I meet Muhammad who does not want to tell the French journalist his full name "because there is very much trouble around here", but who insists that I sit by him and read from the screen his online diary and look at the photos he had placed at http://www.rafah.vze.com.

Muhammad is 18, he has a delicate face and studies English in the university. I decide to gamble and suggest to him to be my interpreter and escort in Rafah. I leave Joe behind the computer and walk with Muhammad through Salah A-Dn Street, Rafah's main street. I notice a bit of discomfort in Muhammad's look and ask him what is the matter. "You better buy a keffiya and cover your hair. That way, you will be less conspicuous, and people will feel that you identify with their suffering. I immediately take his advice. We stop at the first stall, buy a keffiya, stop a taxi, haggle a bit and agree upon 50 shekels for half an hour an d start going around the city. Already on the first moment he asks if I am the foreign journalist who had come to visit the internationals. Rumors spread swiftly here. The driver tells me that it was him who had taken Rachel Corrie to her death on that fateful morning.

The first site Muhammad chooses to show me is at Block G on the northern edge of the city, where 400 houses had been destroyed. As we come near, inhabitants living in tents warn us not to come close to the tanks with their guns directed at us.

"When they see something moving they shoot," a woman on a donkey warns Muhammad.

The rest of the way we do half crawling among the ruins, through the narrow alleys, careful not to raise our heads. The tanks are some 200 metres away, their guns at the ready. It is important to Muhammad to show me the site of the mass house demolition. He had photographed house after house and entered the houses into his internet site, which is daily visited by 900 people from all over the world.

Row after row of destroyed houses, with personal belongings scattered and strewn around. Dolls, furniture, bicyles, books. We crawl through the alleys to avoid the threatening guns of tanks. "They can shoot at any moment, just at any suspicious movement" he says and leads further in. The fear comes crawling up my feet and legs. Finally, when we come closer and closer to the tanks and the ruins become deeper and deeper, I raise my voice: "Enough!" Muhammad yields to the French journalist, and we get into the taxi and move on.

The next destination is the al-Ubur Airfield which had been destroyed by F-16 airplanes, then the ruined house beside which Rachel Corrie was killed, then a small hospital whose two ambulances are running around constantly. Most things we watch from a distance of no less than 100 metres "since shooting can start at any moment." After two hours I insist on calling a halt. We enter a small restaurant and order large pita bread with humous, tehina and coca cola, all for four and a half shekels [About one dollar, less than half the Tel-Aviv price].

"Where do you live?" I ask. "I moved with my parents to a different house. Two months ago they destroyed our home. I came from the university and found everything ruined. The computer, the books, the notebooks, my study materials. Nothing was left. They came and destroyed everything at a moment's notice, did not give any chance of taking things out. We were just thrown into the street. Me, my father, my mother, my three brothers, my grandfather. And believe me" he says to the French journalist "they had no reason. We are just an ordinary family, not involved in anything. They just destroyed our life in one hour". I look at Muhammad talking. Only now, after I saw the 400 destroyed houses, do I really understand his grief.

Muhammad leads me back to the internationals' flat just as they are about to go pay a coalescence visit to the familes of people killed on the same day as Rachel. To my surprise, they don't object to my joining them. The seven of us squeeze ourselves into a single taxi, and we go the water tower at the edge of the city. One of the group's duties is to guard the water and electricity workers who repair the water pipes or electricity wires damaged in the shooting. While they do their work Joe, Laura, Alice and Gordon form a circle around them, to defend them from the soldiers' shots.

A faceless enemy In the bereaved families' houses, where I sat with the others on the floor, drank bitter coffee and ate dates, I hardly ever heard the word "Israelis". Even the word "soldiers" was only rarely used. What the Palestinians usually say is simply "they". This is not by chance. During the 30 hours that I lived there I never saw a flesh-and-blood Israeli soldier. From the Palestinian point of view the enemy has no face, no body, no human form. The enemy is hidden behind giant D-9 bulldozers, monsters as big as a house themselves, at whose top there are squares of opaque reinforced glass. The enemy is hidden behind bunkers, guard towers, metal tanks. The enemy has no face, no expressions which could be interpreted. The enemy is hidden behind tons of khaki-coloured steel. Massive steel, frightening, belching fire without warning. For the man in the street the enemy is virtual, sophisticated, unhuman, inaccesible.

And facing this enemy are the Palestinians I see waliking in the dirty streets. Many with torn cloths, some barefooted, neglected, manifestly poor. You can see the traces of sorrow, apprehension., suffering, inadequate food. At 45 they look old. They walk from one side of the city to the other, seeking some kind of a job. Men walk in groups, hither and fro. They have no jobs and nowhere to go. They live squeezed — men, women and children — in narrow houses and small pieces of land.

Alice, who prefers not to mention her family name, grew up in London. After highschool she studied computer programming, had a nice job and rented a good appartment. "I lived a bourgois life and I found that it leads nowhere. Going to an expensive restaurant with a new boyfriend, and on the way passing homeless people sleeping on the pavement. I started to be interested in how the strong exploit the weak, and for a time I went to work in a factory. Afterwards I became more and more political. I started to give an account to myself for everything I did, what did I eat, what entertainment did I enjoy, what does it mean to live in a capitalist society. I went to demonstrate in Prague and got arrested. I put my courage to the test, until I finally trained myself to come here. Here it is the most difficult. What is most interesting to me is to analyse the tactics of force used by the strong against the weak. Only here, when I help the Palestinians to face the Israelis, do I feel that my life has a meaning."

We walked for 20 minutes with the stormy march, then we moved aside and started shopping for the evening: preserved meat, noodles, rice, sugar, cookies and tea. The group is financed by contributions and lives as a commune. Every spent Shekel is carefully noted down Nowhere to escape At Six PM, a last team meeting ahead of the night. The small commune is conducted by strict rules. Every morning at 8.30 they meet at the appartment after having spent the night at threatened Palestinians homes. They discuss the experiences of the past night, hear from Palestinian friends on developments on the ground, and divide tasks for the coming day. They stand as human shields at electricity installations and water wells, collect testimonies, and take footage on small video cameras. They face the hostile lumps of steel with their megaphones and try to establish dialogue with the soldiers inside.

These seven people are taking up an enormous load in this chaos. But who is to take care of these young people themselves, who sleep two hours per night and had not yet time to come to terms with having intimately witnessed Rachel's death?

They spare themselves nothing. They had insisted on wiping the blood from Rachel's face, touching her broken back, taking the body to the morgue with their own hands, wrap it with shrouds, and accomapny it in the ambulance to Tel-Aiv, sharply debating with the soldiers who stopped them for hot hours at the checkpoint despite the fumes which started to arise from the body.

The mother role is played by Carol Moskovitz, who joined the group with her husband Gordon a week ago. Carol is 61 and Gordon seems a bit younger. They are artists, they live in Canada, and have been travelling the world for the past three months. When they heard of what happened to Rachel they decided to cut their trip short and come to offer their help. Since Sunday, they act like parents to the younger members of the group: preparing tea, asking questions, trying to address the shock and disbelief which Rachel left behind.

Carol and Gordon have three daughters in Canada. An hour ago Carol got a phone call from her eldest, 30 years old, with warm greetings for Mother's Day. Carol and Gordon conceal from their daughters the fact that they are in Rafah Camp. They don't want to make their children and grandchildren worry.

It was at 7.30 that I went with Laura and Joe to stay the night in the house of Muhammad Jamil Kushta, the first house fronting the IDF position on the Egyptian border, an ill-fated house. There, in Jamil's house under the ceaseless shooting, guns, missilies, rockets and only the devil knows what else, for four consecutive hours, truly feeling that these might be my last moments, I gambled and revealed my identtity as an Israeli from Tel Aviv. Then I said that my own sons might be among the soldiers shooting at us, not knowing that I was there in the house they were shooting at, or it might be one of my sons' friends who had visited my home.

And that was the moment we started to look at each other and laugh. Three babies, two Americans, a Palestinian couple and an Israeli woman all sitting around a big bowl of salad, with bullets whistling through the air, we started to laugh. A laughter of despair, of apprehension, of relief at the human closeness which we suddenly found. I knew that with some luck I would get through the night and run for my life, but Jamil and Nora had no escape, that they were doomed to raise their three babies under live fire. And then Laura opened her mouth to reveal that she was Jewish too, and rather an observant Jewess too. And it turned out that the fiery Alice, the group's "Jeanne d'Arc", the Israel-hater, was Jewish too. "And the soldiers" said Jamil "they too are just 20-year old children who have to stand out there, alone in the dark, shaking, within the cold steel".

We all agreed: life is short and human beings are silly creatures.

Today, international peace activists try to stop bulldozers demolishing houses in the Tal Soloob area of Rafah.





3 people were injured today, among them a 16 year old boy who was injured at his neck and is in a serious condition now.

During the recent IDF attack on Rafah, 5 people were killed and many injured, many more houses were demolished.

Rafah has many problems now, people leave their houses, because the helicopters attacked our camp, as well as tanks and bulldozers.

The hospitals need help since there are many injured people now.

A large explosion in Rafah, and many tanks and bulldozers starting an attack at the Hay Al Salaam area of Rafah, lots of shells exploding.

On Saturday, about 8 tanks and 2 bulldozers attacked Rafah.
Many people were injured, one person was arrested.



This night, more than 10 tanks and 3 bulldozers attacked Hay Al Salaam in Rafah, and many people were injured, 5 houses were demolished, and another 3 houses were partially demolished; 5 people were arrested, and until now there is massive shooting and shelling in Rafah.

9 PM, massive attacks of the IDF in Rafah, especially in the Hay Al Salam area, until now 2 people killed, several wounded, many houses destroyed!

One of the victims is Rachel Corrie, an American lady, 24 years old.



Her body was crushed by an IDF bulldozer while she was trying to stop it and preventing it from demolishing the house of just another innocent family...

There was a peace vigil this evening and several hundred people attended and prayed for the peace martyr Rachel Corrie.

The shootings and home demolitions continue.



And the Israelis bring many new bulldozers and tanks to Gaza and Rafah this evening.

Last night, the IDF demolished 7 houses in AL Shaeer street and 3 people were injured, one arrested, and more than 500 (HUNDREDS) of olives trees were completely demolished.

Massive shooting and shelling by 3 Israeli helicopters.

A group of international people tried to stop the Israeli bulldozers, the Israeli soldiers commanded them to leave, and were shooting towards them.

During this week, the IDF demolished about 20 houses, a mosque in Rafah camp, as well as agricultural plots. One of the people who lived there was killed, and another 12 were injured, 2 of them are in danger.

More than 10 tanks and 5 bulldozers attacked Rafah camp in Block O.

Today two people were killed, and more than 8 were injured, more than 18 houses were demolished.



A group of international activists from ISM and other people from international organizations like UNRWA tried to stop the Israeli bulldozers, but unfortunately the IDF continued to demolish the houses.

Till this moment there is a massive shooting and bombing in Block J area, and Block O.

The people from Rafah ask the world to stop the IDF and to stop the shootings and house demolitions.

This weekend, the IDF demolished more than 19 houses in Hay Al Salam, and Block (O) in the Rafah camps, although the international peace activists from ISM tried to stop the bulldozers and tanks.

All the homeless families lost all their belongings, and now they don’t have any place to stay any more, while the weather is very chilly...

10 tanks and 4 bulldozers attack the Rafah camps. The IDF demolished another 8 houses in Hay Al Salaam, one of the Rafah camps.



There is massive shooting, people try to rescue some of their demolished furniture, but unfortunately the Israeli tanks shoot towards them.

The owners of the demolished houses ask the world to tell the IDF to stop demolishing houses without any reason.

I asked an old women what happened exactly, she answered:

"I don't know what I have to say to you, I lived in this house with my five sons and I didn’t do anything against the Israeli, so why they demolished our houses, I don’t know!!!"