| Not that anyone could tell the difference. EFL. |
RAFAH, Gaza Stripped (AP) - Food and water are running low, there's no milk for the nine babies and toddlers, and the older children are terrified. For Khalil Shagfa's extended family of 55, as for thousands of others in this besieged refugee camp, the Israeli incursion has brought fear and deprivation. Shagfa says Red Thingy Cross supplies have reached a mosque across the street but he can't collect them because of the ammo crates in the way heavy Israeli fire. "The milk is almost finished, the Pampers are out, we're tearing up old clothes and using them as diapers. And we're out of water, we ran out this morning," said Shagfa, 53, whose relatives are all trapped in their apartments in a Rafah building by the Israeli offensive.
| But no, they haven't hit bottom yet. |
Israel launched the raid Tuesday, less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers in Gaza. Officials and relief groups warned of a humanitarian crisis unless water and electricity are restored to Tel Sultan, the area of Rafah that has taken the brunt of the incursion. But fears were likely to ease after residents said that Israeli troops and tanks began pulling out of the refugee camp at daybreak Friday after a three-day sweep that left 39 Palestinians dead. Israel military sources merely confirmed the troops were "redeploying."
The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross said Thursday it was working to get food, water and medical supplies to Tel Sultan's 25,000 occupants. The Tel Aviv-based group Physicians for Human Rights except for Israeli Children said Israeli restrictions on the movement of ambulances were hindering the resupply of Paleo terror units evacuation of the wounded. Residents of neighboring Khan Younis smuggled two trucks with food, blankets and ammo other supplies into Rafah on Thursday, using back roads to get around the army blockade. However, they were unable to distribute the supplies because it was too dangerous to enter the parts of the camp controlled by Israel, organizers of the relief mission said.
Fayez Abu Shammale, one of the volunteers, said the trucks had to sneak through olive groves within 100 yards of Israeli tanks.
| Explain to the crowd, Fayez, why the Israelis -- who knew you were there -- let you live. Perhaps they have more restraint than you know? |
Residents said the most pressing need was for water - the supply of running water had been cut off, and many rooftop tanks have run dry or been pierced by Israeli bullets. Witnesses said 37-year-old Khalil Assar was killed and two of his relatives were wounded by army fire Thursday as they tried to take out an APC with a rocket launcher fix a bullet-riddled water tank atop an apartment building.
An old cemetery in Rafah was reopened Thursday to bury seven of the dead terrorists; the new cemetery, located in the area of fighting, was out of reach. At Rafah's small hospital and a nearby makeshift morgue, 25 terrorist bodies were awaiting burial. Relatives were unable to arrange for funerals because they live in parts of the camp controlled by Israeli troops and could not leave their homes.
Troops pushed farther into the crowded camp Thursday. Several families said they were forced to leap from windows as army bulldozers rammed their homes. "Our neighbor stood on the roof of his house and pleaded with the army to let him get his grandfather out of the house, he's old and moves slowly especially when burdened down with an RPG," said Ahmad Ishta, a resident of Rafah's Brazil neighborhood. Four people helped the elderly man get out of the house.
| "Dump Grandpa, git that RPG!" |
|