GAZA, 19 October 2004 — A US human rights watchdog and the United Nations refugee agency denounced Israel yesterday for its systematic destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
Human Rights Watch accused Israel of exaggerating threats of Palestinian arms-smuggling tunnels to justify a devastating security thrust into a Gaza refugee camp that has left thousands homeless. “We’ve seen the piece by piece destruction of up to 10 percent of Rafah,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
Since fighting began four years ago, some 16,000 people have been made homeless in Rafah, many of them during a large-scale army incursion in May, the report said. Roth called the destruction gratuitous, saying the army was retaliating for the killing of five soldiers on the patrol road along the border.
The army says the demolition of homes along the Gaza-Egypt border is needed to prevent Palestinians from smuggling arms through tunnels. Also, the houses provide gunmen with cover to attack troops patrolling the border. “Neither excuse could justify the wholesale destruction in Rafah,” Roth said. The report argues that the security considerations are secondary to Israel’s desire for a large clear border area to “facilitate long-term control over the Gaza Strip.”
“The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat,” the report said. The military mind-set “is based on the assumption that every Palestinian is a potential suicide bomber and every home a potential base for attack,” the report said.
Israel has violated international law by failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants and it did not live up to its responsibilities as an occupying power to protect civilians under its control, the report said. Israel has said that over the past four years it had flattened houses hiding more than 90 arms smuggling tunnels. Human Rights Watch said army officers acknowledged to its researchers that the figure of 90 included entrance shafts, some of which led to existing tunnels and others to nothing at all. The group called on Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc. to stop selling bulldozers to the Israeli military.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees charged Israel with committing gross violations of international and humanitarian law during its massive offensive in northern Gaza. Peter Hansen, general commissioner of the United Nations Relief Works Agency, said that up to 700 people were thought to have been made homeless during the course of Operation Days of Penitence which left 129 Palestinians dead before being concluded over the weekend.
Speaking to reporters on a tour of the Jabaliya refugee camp, Hansen said at least 90 houses had been destroyed but added the figure was “a low estimate but will increase, I am sure, as we get more and more careful surveys.”
— Additional input from agencies
