Author An Al-Monitor correspondent in Sinai Posted July 15, 2014Translator(s)Joelle El-Khoury
Israeli airstrikes damage Egyptian homes
RAFAH, Egypt — Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip is rattling Egyptians on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border. Eyewitnesses on the Egyptian side said houses along the border that is adjacent to the Gaza Strip have been directly affected by the intense Israeli bombardment.
Abu Mohammed al-Shaer, who resides in a two-story building on the border with the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor, “We are living in fear as the Israeli occupation army is bombing the Palestinian border that is located within no more than 300 meters [984 feet] away from us.”
He added, “No one can imagine how harsh the bombardment is. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a strong artificial magnitude 5 earthquake. The F-16 Fighting Falcons are striking the border all night until sunrise with the most intense missiles we have ever seen, although we have witnessed all of the wars on the Gaza Strip given that we are in the vicinity.”
Shaer continued, “I think the rockets with which Gaza is being bombed are new, for they cause abnormal quakes to the ground and subsequently to our houses. The glass windows have all been shattered, and the [walls of the] houses have cracked. This time, the impact of the bombardment has reached the city of Sheikh Zuweid, which is located 15 kilometers [9.3 miles] west of the border.”
Shaer expressed his fear of the continuation of the bombing, and said, “Since the war has begun, fighter jets have bombed the border tunnels continuously. If this situation persists, a catastrophe will occur because the underground is hollow, given that there are more than a thousand underground tunnels stretching under the houses toward Gaza.”
Umm Salem, a lady in her 50s who lives in a house that overlooks the Gaza Strip, in Salah al-Din in Egypt, told Al-Monitor, “We have become used to breathing smoke and dust from the bombardments on the border from 2008 until now.”
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The continuation of the Israeli bombardment along the Egyptian border in Rafah suggests that the smuggling tunnels are part of the objectives of the Israeli war on Gaza, as Israel has often claimed that these tunnels are used to smuggle weapons to Palestinian resistance factions.
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COMMENT
I'm going to state the obvious: it must be so scary living there.
