Israel plans to raze
more Gaza homes
Khalid Amayreh, Al Jazeera,
26 January 2005
![]() |
| In the past four years,
Israeli armed forces have illegally razed thousands of homes,
regardless of military necessity, to clear Palestinians from
the Gaza-Egypt border and create a so-called �buffer zone."
The Israeli government is calling for the destruction of many
more homes to widen the zone as part of a plan to �disengage�
from the territory. (PCHR) |
The Israeli army
has renewed plans to demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes in
Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, according to the
Israeli media. Army sources say the purpose of the demolitions is to
create an artificial canal to prevent Palestinians from digging
underground tunnels which could be used to smuggle weapons into Gaza
from Egypt.
A report published in the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz on Wednesday said Israeli officials were worried the
demolitions would trigger widespread international
indignation, especially in light of the gradual
restoration of calm and the imminent ceasefire.
The
demolitions, considered illegal under international law, could
undermine newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmud
Abbas' reported success in getting resistance groups
to agree to a draft ceasefire agreement that could end more than
four years of violence.
Israeli sources were quoted as
saying the Israeli army will bulldoze or dynamite entire
neighbourhoods parallel to the Philadelphi route, a 200-metre wide
strip of land along the Gaza border with the Sinai
Peninsula.
'Demolitions necessary'
The
demolitions could leave between 3000 and 10,000 Palestinians
homeless and exacerbate the environmental disaster already
wrought by more than four years of Israeli bulldozing and
demolition.
The Israeli army says the demolitions are
necessary to protect soldiers patrolling the Gaza-Egypt border.
A Palestinian Authority (PA) official condemned the
planned demolitions in an interview to Aljazeera.net.
"Israel
is committing nefarious crimes by demolishing Palestinian homes and
property. Israel can't speak about a planned withdrawal from Gaza
and at the same time intend to destroy thousands of homes in Rafah,"
Majdi al-Khalidi, a PA foreign ministry spokesman, said on
Wednesday. He said the PA will confront the
quartet backing the road map peace plan - the UN, US, EU and
Russia - with the looming Israeli action.
'Colossal
crime'
"The peace process in its entirety will lose
meaning and relevance if Israel goes ahead with this colossal
crime," al-Khalidi said. He added that the PA would also ask the
Egyptian government to pressure Israel into stopping the
planned demolitions.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the
planned demolitions were justified by security considerations and in
no way reflected an Israeli desire to harm the Palestinians. "The
army wants to widen the Philadelphi route in order to protect
Israeli troops patrolling the area from Palestinian attacks," she
said. The spokeswoman said the army would destroy homes only in the
context of fighting "terror".
Clear
violation
The occupation army has already destroyed
thousands of homes in the area. However, it contends that it is
not enough to create the 300-metre canal to protect Israeli tanks
from Palestinian missiles, which have a maximum range of 300
metres.
"Destroying houses that belong to residents of
occupied territory violates the rules of international humanitarian
law," Dan Yakir, legal adviser to the Association for Civil Rights
in Israel, said in a recent letter to attorney-general Menahcem
Mazuz.
"Massive destruction of houses is liable to constitute
a war crime. The accepted interpretation permitting demolitions is
that the military need must be immediate, but in this case there is
no immediate need for the demotions," he wrote.
Fate of
Gaza
According to Palestinian figures, the Israeli army
has destroyed as many as 9000 Palestinian homes and buildings since
the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.
Palestinian
officials have long voiced fears that the Gaza disengagement plan is
actually a plan to strangle the estimated 1.4 million Gazans since
the Israeli army will retain control over all border crossings
between the 250 square kilometre region and the outside world. "If
the Israeli army retains control of border crossings with Egypt,
this effectively means that the Gaza Strip will become the biggest
detention camp in the world," PA's al-Khalidi said.
Israeli
Vice-Premier Shimon Peres tacitly agrees with this logic.
"We
understand that in the long run we have to give up control over the
Philadelphi route. Gaza can't remain closed from all
directions forever," he said in a speech at a Tel Aviv
conference on Tuesday.
Khalid Amayreh is a journalist
based in the occupied West Bank. This article was originally
published by aljazeera.net and reprinted on EI with
permission.
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TOPIC: House Demolitions
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