In 2004, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rainbow in Cloud () in the southern Gaza Strip on 12–24 May 2004, involving an invasion and siege of Rafah. The operation was started after the deaths of eleven Israeli soldiers in two Palestinian attacks, in which M113 armored vehicles were attacked.

Human Rights Watch reported 59 Palestinians killed during 12–24 May, including 11 under age eighteen and 18 armed men. The IDF razed some 300 homes to expand the buffer zone along the Egypt–Gaza border, expanding it far inside the Gaza Strip. Also, a zoo and at least 700 dunams (70 ha) of agricultural land were destroyed.

Israel's declared aims of Operation Rainbow were finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting terrorists, and securing the Philadelphi Route by expanding the buffer zone.

Background

In response to a repeated shelling of Israeli communities with Qassam rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, the IDF operated mainly in Rafah – to search and destroy smuggling tunnels used by militants to obtain weapons, ammunition, fugitives, cigarettes, car parts, electrical goods, foreign currency, gold, drugs, and cloth from Egypt. The IDF launched a series of armored raids on the Gaza Strip (mainly Rafah and refugee camps around Gaza). On 22 March 2004, an Israeli helicopter gunship killed Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and on 17 April, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi was killed by IDF helicopter gunship strike.

Buffer zone

Since 2001, the IDF has routinely demolished Palestinian houses in Rafah, to create a buffer zone. Persons entering or approaching the buffer zone, including humanitarian workers, foreign dignitaries and UN observers came under fire. Until 2000, the IDF used a 20–40 meter wide buffer zone along the Gaza/Egypt border with a 2.5 to 3 meters high concrete wall topped with barbed wire. In 2002, the IDF destroyed hundreds of houses in Rafah, needed for expansion of the buffer zone and the building of an eight meter high and 1.6 kilometers long metal wall along the border. The wall also extends two meters underground. The wall is built some eighty to ninety meters from the border, which doubled the width of the patrol corridor. After the metal wall was completed in early 2003, the demolitions continued and were even increased dramatically. According to Human Rights Watch, the wall was built far inside the demolished area to create a new starting point for justifying further demolitions. Between 1 April 2003 and 30 April 2004, 487 more houses were demolished in Rafah.

In May 2004, the Israeli government approved a plan to further expand the buffer zone. The Israeli military recommended demolishing all homes within three hundred meters of its positions, or about four hundred meters from the border.

Human rights group PCHR recorded 290 destroyed houses in Rafah in May 2004.

According to HRW, the IDF's justifications for the destruction were doubtful and rather consistent with the goal of having a wide and empty border area to facilitate long-term control over the Gaza Strip.

On 17 May, the IDF launched "Operation Rainbow" with the objectives: finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting "terrorists", and securing the Philadelphi Route. On 18 May, rumours were spread about arms shipments in the Sinai from Iran, waiting to be smuggled through the tunnels into Gaza. Israeli media mentioned anti-aircraft missiles and long-range rockets waiting to get in, possibly via tunnels underneath the Suez canal. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said on 20 May that the Rafah operation was necessary to protect Israeli civilian airliners from anti-aircraft missiles that smugglers were attempting to bring into Rafah. No captures of such weapons are known, and a high-ranking Egyptian official interviewed by Human Rights Watch denied the existence of the shipment. Around midnight the same day, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an interim order temporarily barring the IDF from demolishing homes in the refugee camp, if the action was not part of "a regular military operation". Nevertheless, the IDF continued the destruction of homes until 15 May 5:00 am because of "immediate military necessity, a risk to soldiers, or a hindrance to a military operation", The ruling caused panic among the residents and hundreds of Palestinians fled from their homes. Israeli helicopters fired missiles on the office of the weekly newspaper al-Resala in Gaza City, destroying its offices. The next day, Israel started "Operation Rainbow".

Operation Rainbow

In the morning of 17 May 2004, the Israel army launched "Operation Rainbow". At 1 pm, the IDF closed the only road between Rafah and Khan Yunis and initiated a total siege. Armoured vehicles, main battle tanks and armoured bulldozers entered Rafah from the east through the Sofa Crossing, effectively cutting off Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip.

The next day before dawn, the army surrounded Tel al-Sultan. Armoured vehicles, tanks and bulldozers supported by helicopter gunships entered the Tel al-Sultan quarter of Rafah simultaneously from several directions; the troops established a cordon around the area and separated the area from the rest of Rafah. A number of armoured vehicles entered through UNRWA schools in the southeastern part, causing extensive damage to the school grounds. Ambulances were prevented from evacuating the casualties out of fear that they would be hijacked by terrorists. Palestinians were prevented from accessing UNRWA's health clinic in the area. Israeli IDF Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers erected sand-barriers around Rafah to isolate it. Later, the D9s entered into the Rafah in order to open routes and demolish houses, allegedly used by militants. Extensive damage was caused to roads, water and sewage pipes and agricultural areas with greenhouses.

Under pressure of sharp international criticism, the Israel government declared on 18 May that the plan to widen a buffer zone along the Egyptian border was cancelled, while the same day, the army massively invaded Rafah and continued its large-scale destruction. IDF snipers used abandoned houses as firing positions. Many houses were damaged or destroyed. Some 60 homes were demolished and 35 others partially destroyed. also greenhouses and equipment were destroyed.

The IDF said they had destroyed the zoo while en route to another objective and because an alternate route had been booby-trapped. According to Human Rights Watch, the deliberate and time-consuming nature of the destruction, the seizure of the four-story Juma’ house, and the stationing of several tanks there for over a day means that it was not an action en route, but rather part of enforcing a cordon. later during the military operation two Israeli soldiers were killed and two more wounded.

As of 23 May 2004 one smuggling tunnel had been found, which according to the Israeli army was 25 feet deep and contained explosives.

According to UN relief agency UNRWA, the IDF destroyed 45 buildings during the operation and 155 buildings in Rafah over the past month. Human rights groups estimated that the army had demolished some 170–180 buildings in Rafah, including some 300 homes. About 2,000 people became homeless in Operation Rainbow. According to Human Rights Watch, during 12–24 May, 254 houses were destroyed, leaving nearly 3,800 people homeless, and 44 another houses in the Rafah area during the same month in other operations.

Aftermath

On 29 June 2004, Israel started an invasion of Beit Hanoun. On 29 September, after a Qassam rocket hit the Israeli town of Sderot and killed two Israeli children, the IDF launched an invasion of the north of the Gaza Strip. The operation's stated aim was to remove the threat of Qassam rockets from Sderot. The operation ended on 16 October, leaving widespread destruction and some 130 Palestinians dead.

See also

  • List of invasions in the 21st century
  • Israeli casualties of war
  • Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel

References

  • Summary Of Briefing Held 24 May 2004 By GOC Southern Command/Reference to: Palestinian Terrorists kills Palestinian Children
  • Briefing - Gaza Division Commander, Brigadier-General Shmuel Zakai
  • PMW:PA called "Women, Children and Elderly" to Wednesday's Battle
  • IDF Humanitarian aid in Rafah (Israeli Defence Force statement)
  • Haaretz report - UNRWA: 45 housed were razed. IDF: we killed 40 terrorists, Palestinians killed 2 children.
  • Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip - Human Rights Watch