RAFAH: In the past weeks the families living in Egyptian Rafah have faced similar fears as their neighbors and relatives on the other side of the border. Although they have been out of the direct line of fire, many families fled the border areas due to the ongoing bombing and occasional shrapnel that landed near them.
One of the residents, Abu Youssef, told Daily News Egypt that a week ago six bombs had fallen on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border and that the military had covered up the incident. The day before another three unexploded bombs had landed in Dihneyya, a neighborhood in Rafah, “the army came, dug them into a hole and blew them up, Abu Youssef said.
As none of the injured military personnel are from the area few details are known about the incident. One resident of Egyptian Rafah explained that the inhabitants of Northern Sinai were considered the “the Jews of Sinai, were not called into army service and thus had no information about military affairs.
Another local, Yasser, told Daily News Egypt that in the past week an officer had been killed and another two soldiers injured by an Israeli bomb that had dropped close to the unknown solider in downtown Rafah. Mustapha Singer, a local teacher and journalist, confirmed that at least two officers had indeed been injured by Israeli shelling and taken to a military facility to which the press has no access.
Um Mohamed and her family live just a few hundred meters away from the Rafah border. She told Daily News Egypt that originally she is Palestinian but had now taken Egyptian citizenship. Many of her relatives live on the other side.
Over the course of the past many weeks her children and grandchildren have been suffering under the continuous Israeli fire across the border. “We don’t sleep because the situation is so difficult, the house shakes and throughout the night the children wake up screaming, Um Mohamed said.
Shrapnel had killed some of their goats while the continuous shelling shattered many windows. When a young boy suggested showing this reporter the destroyed windows in the nearby mosque he was warned, “Don’t show them or else we will all be arrested.
The streets of Rafah are crawling with military and security personnel and the town’s inhabitants certainly know what can be shown and said and what can’t. The area most closely guarded is Salah Aldin Street where the Rafah border was breached on Jan. 23, 2007.
Tunnels that just three weeks ago used to transport food, clothing, kerosene, petrol and diesel among other things into the Gaza Strip are now mostly at a standstill. Only a very few tunnels are still functioning as the Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian Rafah has caused wide destruction for the tunnel industry.
Although the tunnels were not a viable alternative to the opening of border crossings into the Gaza Strip they did provide some breathing space for trade into Gaza. This begs the question, what will happen next?
Breaching the Border?
In Sheikh Zowayed, a town 15 km away from the Rafah border Singer said that the last two times the border was breached was in coordination between Hamas and the Egyptian authorities.
Thirty-eight days prior to the incident in January 2008 the journalist received word from Fatah officers being housed in Egyptian military camps that the border would be toppled. Despite this prior information the governorate of Northern Sinai was far from prepared for the flow of people following the border opening.
“When the border was breached in 2008, Rafah, Sheikh Zowayed and Arish ran out of water and prices tripled . Many Palestinians were sleeping in the streets, Singer said, “In [Egyptian] Rafah, Hamas members were guiding traffic in the streets in order to restore some order.
According to Singer four days before Israel’s latest military attacks the governor of Northern Sinai met with local leaders, heads of schools, youth organizations and hospitals to prepare for mobilization in case Palestinians sought refuge in the area. At a monthly meeting of the governorates executive council on Jan. 20 the governor furthermore coordinated efforts for possible emigration of Palestinian refugees.
Near the hospital in Rafah the Egyptian army set up a camp of tents soon after the Israeli military onslaught began. Daily News Egypt received reports that other such camps existed within closed off Egyptian military compounds. Egyptian authorities have given no official explanation as to why the tents are there.
Khalil Alniss, head of Justice for Gaza, an NGO that coordinates humanitarian assistance into Gaza, is based in the area. Alniss believes the tents may be used to house fleeing Palestinian refugees.
In the Egyptian town of Rafah, Um Mohamed said, “if they open the border they are welcome, if they need to come then let them come.
