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Rafah Demonstration Threatened to Cut Off IDF Troops

(Ha'aretz) Amir Oren - As the procession of Palestinian demonstrators in Rafah began making its way toward the IDF forces, with gunmen visible among them, the commander of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, tried to talk with community leaders. The chief liaison officer, Col. Fuli Mordechai, called former PA Ministry of Industry and Trade director Nasser Saraj, head of the citizens committees in the city, who did nothing to prevent the disaster. As the marchers approached a series of structures, behind which were IDF tanks and armored carriers, the commanders grew apprehensive that the crowd would charge the forces. Lt. Col. S., the tank battalion commander, who bears the scars of an anti-tank missile that injured him in Lebanon, is very familiar with the capabilities of such a missile fired from a short distance. He also knew that the armored force, toward which the demonstrators marched, was not the most forward element. Ahead of it, hidden from sight, for sniping and observation and preparing for another operation, were infantry units. Were the demonstrators to continue, the infantry units would have been surrounded.
2004-05-21 00:00:00
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