In early April, just weeks after resuming its assault on Gaza, Israeli forces announced that they had taken control of the southernmost city of Rafah to create the “Morag Axis,” a new military corridor further dissecting the Strip. Over the course of the war, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the army had destroyed more than 50,000 housing units in Rafah — 90 percent of its residential neighborhoods. Now, the army proceeded to flatten Rafah’s remaining structures, turning the entire city into a buffer zone and cutting off Gaza’s only border crossing with Egypt.
Y., a soldier who recently returned from reserve duty in Rafah, described the army’s demolition methods to +972 Magazine and Local Call. “I secured four or five bulldozers [from another unit], and they demolished 60 houses per day. A one or two story house, they take down within an hour; a three or four-story house takes a bit longer,” he said. “The official mission was to open a logistical route for maneuvering, but in practice, the bulldozers were simply destroying homes. The southeastern part of Rafah is completely destroyed. The horizon is flat. There is no city.” ….more
