But human-rights groups and Palestinians say that the destruction is a form of collective punishment and only rarely meets international definitions of military necessity. "Nobody questions that tunnels exist in Rafah or shooting from militants takes place. But whether that has anything to do with the scale and size of the demolitions is a burning question," says Miranda Sissons of Human Rights Watch. Last October, Israel began building a two-and-a-half-mile-long iron and cement security wall to protect its military bases and adjacent Jewish settlements. Along the wall, the idf has cleared a swath as wide as a football field, shearing off row after row of houses. The United Nations says that since the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in 2001, 582 Rafah homes have been demolished, another 721 have been damaged, and 5,305 people have been made homeless, more than in the rest of the Gaza Strip combined.
The demolitions, human-rights activists and Palestinians say, have been accompanied by random gunfire from Israeli snipers perched in watchtowers and occupied buildings scattered throughout Rafah. Two hundred and forty people, including 78 children, have been killed, according to Dr. Ali Moussa, director of Rafah's hospital. "Every night there is shooting at houses in which children are sleeping, without any attacks from Palestinians," he says. As I traveled around Rafah, I saw posters memorializing dead children: Nafez Mishal, 2, killed by a tank missile on November 12, 2002; Salem Abdul Kadr Al Shaer, 12, fatally shot in the stomach on October 26, 2002; Asa Zanoun, 13, struck in the head and killed while studying in her bedroom. The idf says that civilians get caught in crossfire and blame militants for using them as human shields. "It's sad that Palestinian terrorists are using the civilians to hide behind," Sharon Feingold, an army spokeswoman, told me.
