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Israeli Attack on Rafah One of Largest Gaza Offensive In Years

HeadlineMay 19, 2004

The BBC is reporting Israel’s attack on Rafah is one of the largest Israeli offensives ever in Gaza. Haaretz is reporting up to 23 Palestinians were killed today when an Israeli missile was fired into a crowd of Rafah residents were demonstrating the against Israeli attack. 20 Palestinians died on Tuesday in a offensive which the Israelis are calling “Operation Rainbow.” The entire Rafah refugee camp is now without water or electricity and has been sealed off from the rest of Gaza. Yasser Arafat accused Israel of carrying out a planned massacre. He said “What is happening in Rafah is an operation to destroy and to transfer the local Palestinian population, and this must not be accepted, not by the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, nor by the international community.” The United Nations and European Union demanded the offensive to end. President Bush spoke at an AIPAC conference Tuesday and said he was troubled by the events but added “Israel has every right to defend itself.”

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