Operation Rainbow: Rafah, a Year Later
In May 2004 Israeli forces swept into Rafah in southern Gaza to destroy smuggling tunnels. Hundreds of homes were demolished. A year on, families were still asking why.
In May 2004, after Palestinian militants killed Israeli soldiers in attacks on armoured vehicles in the Gaza Strip, Israel launched Operation Rainbow in Rafah, the town straddling Gaza's border with Egypt. The army said its aim was to find and destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
What happened
Over about a week, Israeli forces entered the neighbourhoods of Tel al-Sultan and Brazil. Palestinian and UN figures recorded dozens of Palestinians killed, including a group of demonstrators and children hit by tank and helicopter fire during a march. UN agencies reported that the operation, together with demolitions in the preceding weeks, left more than a thousand people homeless.
The international response
The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1544 in May 2004, calling on Israel to respect international humanitarian law and expressing grave concern at the demolition of homes in Rafah. The United States abstained rather than use its veto. Human rights organisations published detailed reports questioning whether the scale of demolition could be justified by military necessity.
A year later
For the families who lost their homes, the question they put to Israel's then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was simple: why did you destroy my house? Many were still living with relatives or in temporary shelter a year later.
In August 2005, Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza. The border strip at Rafah, the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, remained a centre of conflict for the next two decades, through the tunnel economy, repeated wars and the fighting that began in 2023.