IOF Wounds Child, Destroys 20 Homes in Rafah

IOF Wounds Child, Completes Destruction of 20 Houses in Rafah

RAFAH, Palestine, November 11, 2003 (IPC + Agencies)-- One Palestinian child was shot and wounded Monday overnight while 20 houses were flattened by Israeli occupying forces (IOF) in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Palestinian medical and security sources said that 14-year old Abed Abul Sa'id was shot and wounded in the right hand, when IOF military vehicles opened random fire at Palestinian homes in the Bloc "O" area of Rafah City, south of the Gaza Strip.

Hospital officials at Abu Yousif Al Najjar hospital in Rafah told IPC correspondent that Abul Sa'id's wounds were moderate and that his condition was stable.

Three Israeli D-9 military bulldozers, backed by several armored vehicles, resumed the tearing down of 20 houses in the same bloc, which they partially demolished sometime ago, Palestinian security sources said.

"The bulldozers were leveling the houses while the armored vehicles were firing heavy gunfire at the neighboring houses and our house. We ran downstairs in fear that the bullets might penetrate the wall and hit us. We also packed our necessary things also in fear of having our house also torn down," Salem Al Sha'er, a resident of Bloc "O", said.

Israeli forces started redeploying around the city, a thing that caused several Palestinian residents to leave their homes, and later to be surprised and frightened by the random gunfire shot at them, security sources reported.

18 Palestinian citizens, including children and women, were murdered while 161 houses were destroyed when IOF invaded the Yebna refugee camp and Al-Brazil neighborhood (in Rafah) on the 10th of last October.

In the last invasion, 267 families holding 1,250 members, were displaced. several neighborhoods were completely destroyed or deprived from basic services, such as water, electricity and sanitation, according to Rafah Governorate sources.

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