Word: rafah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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According to an Israeli military-intelligence officer, the June 25 assault on the Kerem Shalom army post was weeks in the planning. Two days before the raid, Israeli special forces kidnapped two Hamas militants in Rafah, Gaza. After interrogating the detainees, the troops alerted military commanders that an attack was imminent. "The alert didn't include the color of the underwear of the militants," says the officer. "But it was very specific." It wasn't enough. At 5:30 a.m. on June 25, six Palestinian militants emerged from a tunnel dug 10 yds. deep and stretching from a private house...
...moment, the troops are holding observatory positions just inside the border, on the site of an abandoned airport about a mile from the southern town of Rafah. It is there that military intelligence believes Shalit is being held. Palestinian gunmen had taken up positions throughout Gaza, but as of yet, neither side has initiated a confrontation, suggesting that there are some non-military avenues to resolution...
Palestinian officials fear that Sharon's move, apparently meant to rejuvenate the peace process, may stall it. Although Palestinians last week celebrated the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt--the first border post under Palestinian control--a Cabinet minister said he is worried that Israeli jockeying will hinder further progress: "Politicians will now be interested in playing internal Israeli games, rather than working for peace with the Palestinians...
...Monday, Rice met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as with other senior officials, and also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pressing both sides to find the "will and creativity" to open not only Rafah but all the gateways in and out of Gaza and the West Bank...
...security-sovereignty deadlock was resolved in a compromise in which the Israelis agreed to cede responsibility for camera surveillance and watch-list screening at Rafah to European personnel, while the Palestinians accepted that the Europeans would have final authority to order extra searches and computer checks on people and vehicles traveling from Egypt to Gaza...