The caravan will be also used to "expose Israeli crimes"

By Adel Zaarab, IOL Correspondent

RAFAH, June 8 (IslamOnline.net) – After the Israeli occupation forces demolished his home in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah , Ayad Barhum found nothing to house his 15-member family but a caravan.

"The idea was borne out of a mind seeking to avoid the Israeli destruction machine, which flattened two homes for me and my family this year," he told IslamOnline.net.

Barhum said his family home was razed to the ground in an Israeli military incursion into Yabna refugee camp in southern Rafah last October.

"After we moved to a new home the Israeli forces came and demolished it during its latest aggression on Rafah," he lamented.

The Israeli military offensive on Rafah and its refugee camp, the bloodiest of its kind in years, has claimed the lives of up to 62 Palestinians, flattened 155 homes and drove some 2000 residents homeless.

The international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, had dismissed the Israeli operations as "war crimes".

New Small House

The second demolition left Barhum and his 15 family members homeless. They had to move to a caravan which has one bedroom, a kitchen and a toilet.

"It has no water, electricity, doors or windows. We are forced to stay in such a place because there are very few houses left in Rafah and thousands of displaced people," he said.

Barhum added the caravan "would be much feasible to steer away from the destruction caused by the Israeli occupation forces".

"They are following us everywhere".

Exposing ‘Crimes’

Barhum believes his caravan would "expose" the Israeli aggressions in Rafah and other Palestinian territories.

"I will work hard with my caravan to expose Israel ’s continued crimes," he hoped.

Barhum appealed to the world community to help build new homes for his family and thousands of fellow homeless Palestinians.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nuhayyan ordered the UAE Red Crescent to reconstruct 400 of the Palestinians' homes razed by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah and Al-Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City .

Amnesty International said in a May report that 3,000 houses were demolished by Israeli forces in Rafah since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada against the occupation.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) accused the Israeli troops of driving 12,000 Palestinian civilians homeless.

UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen complained it was impossible for his agency "to keep pace with the current level of destruction in the occupied territory".

According to UNRWA a "great many demolitions have occurred near Gaza ’s border with Egypt where Israel is building a security fence," adding that Palestinian houses close to Jewish settlements "are often also destroyed".

It asserted that Israeli occupation forces are increasingly using "explosives rather than bulldozers …to destroy property creating widespread collateral damage."