Like his demolished house, Homs' tiny new shelter, a former kiosk, stands in the path of demolition — a wide buffer zone Palestinians say Israel is carving into the Rafah camp.
Raids over the past three years have left more than 8,600 people homeless, or nearly 10 percent of the camp's 90,000 residents, local officials say. Since the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, Israel has razed 869 houses in Rafah and partially demolished 629 others, local Palestinians claim.
Israel says its frequent incursions into Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt, aim to uncover smuggling tunnels, a main weapons supply line for Palestinian militants in more than three years of fighting. The militants hide the tunnel exits under homes in the camp, cynically using civilians as a shield, military officials say.
Israel controls the Gaza-Egypt border according to interim Israel-Palestinian peace accords.
However, Peter Hansen, a top U.N. aid official, questioned Israel's justification for the demolitions after a tour of the camp Sunday.
"Anyone who has seen the conditions under which these people are now pushed even further into misery and tragedy will ask themselves, `At what price security?'" said Hansen, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA has built shelters for some of the homeless, but says it cannot afford to rehouse all. On Sunday, Hansen handed over 37 houses for 43 families in Khan Younis, a camp near Rafah. The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) has rented apartments for some of the displaced, while others have moved into tents or live with relatives.
The demolitions have generally targeted houses closest to an Israeli-patrolled strip that runs between the edges of the camp and the Egyptian border.
Palestinian officials dispute Israel's claim that the demolitions just target the tunnels, though they don't deny there's an underground trade.
Palestinian Housing Minister Abdel Rahman Hamad said Israel is trying to increase its control over the Palestinians by isolating population centers.
Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman, denied Israel had a hidden agenda in Rafah. Dallal said troops have demolished about 80 tunnels in the past two years, but that the militants keep digging — desperate to keep open the only route of weapons into Gaza. "The only thing we need to do is to stop the tunnels," he said. "We have no incentive to create a so-called buffer zone."
However, Israeli army bulldozers usually demolish a cluster of houses, not only the one that might be covering a tunnel. Palestinians say the only warning they get is the noise of the heavy machines rumbling toward their homes at night.
Last week, about 400 Rafah residents were made homeless and a Palestinian woman standing near her house was killed in the two-day raid.
Homs, the laborer living in the old kiosk, has been enduring his crowded quarters since his house was demolished in October. The new shelter measures 200 square feet and is shared by Homs, his wife and their 10 children, ranging in age from six months to 17 years. The oldest, Mohammed, is a quadriplegic, wounded in October 2000 clashes with soldiers by a bullet to the head.
Homs, 37, said he fears bulldozers may soon tear down this shelter as well, because it's just 20 yards from the last line of houses nearest the border.
The unemployed laborer, who lives on food rations and $120 a month in welfare payments, said he doesn't know if he would have the strength to run one more time. "What would do with my son or with my baby girl?" he said.
"The Israelis claim that there are tunnels. I say there are tunnels, but does that mean the Israelis should demolish all the houses in the neighborhood? Is there anything is the world that can justify the conditions I am living in?"
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AP reporter Lara Sukhtian in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
