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Israel troops wreak havoc on Rafah

Jerusalem: 12 October, 2003 (IAP News) Israeli occupation forces have left parts of the southern Gaza town of Rafah early Sunday, leaving many Palestinians dead and injured and as many as sixty homes completely destroyed.
 
Sources at the Abu Yousuf al Najjar hospital in Rafah reported nine people killed, including 8-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed Qrainawi and a 15-year old Sami Talal Salah ,  and as many as 70 injured, most of them innocent civilians.
 
"I am talking about a real massacre," said Dr. Muhammed Hasanin, "this is usually what happens when a mad army rampages through population centers."
 
Eyewitnesses said Israeli helicopter gunships strafed residential neighborhoods last night with heavy machine gunfire, injuring at least 16 civilians.
 
The aerial strafing targeted the two refugee camps of Yibna and Block-J.
 
"I saw two apaches firing on the two camps. It was indiscriminate and deadly," said Muhammed Aziz, who lives in the Yibna camp.
 
Earlier,  Israeli tanks and bulldozers destroyed as many as sixty residential homes in the Yibna camp, rendering hundreds of men, women and children homeless.
 
In addition, local officials said Israeli tanks sabotaged telephone and electricity lines as well as the local water supply system, leaving the bulk of Rafah and surrounding communities without water.
 
"I can testify that Rafah is a disaster area. The Israeli army has perpetrated a colossal crime against innocent civilians. I appeal to the whole world to intervene to stop Israel's genocidal war against a helpless civilian population," said Rafah Governor Sufyan al Agha.
 
Israel said itsoperation in Rafah was aimed at discovering and destroying tunnels used by Palestinian guerillas to smuggle weapons across the Egyptian borders.
 
However, Agha the "tunnels issue" as only a pretext to inflict death and destruction on the town.
 
"Look, this is only a pretext. If they really  came to destroy tunnels, why did kill and maim  a hundred innocent civilians? Why did they destroy all these homes? Why did they destroy our infrastructure? Why did they destroy power lines, telephone lines, and water pipes? The truth of the matter is that they came to kill and maim as many people as possible and to destroy as many homes as possible."
 
Israel said its forces uncovered and destroyed three tunnels.
 
However, this has not been confirmed by independent sources.
 
Israeli occupation forces routinely rampage inside Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps, ostensibly in an effort to crush Palestinian resistance activists aspiring to end decades of Israeli military occupation.
 
However, in the process, Israeli troops inflicts death and havoc on Palestinian civilians.