THE MIDDLE EAST: The group of women, all dressed in black, came scurrying down Rafah's deserted main street yesterday afternoon, clutching plastic bags full of clothing, reports Nuala Haughey in Rafah
Their house, they said, had been freshly demolished by Israeli army bulldozers as part of the intensification of the siege of this southern Gaza town and adjacent refugee camp.
"They demolished our house half-an-hour ago," said Aziza Abu Ubed, a rosy-cheeked 21-year-old who escaped on foot from the scene with her sisters and other female relatives.
"They [the Israeli army] said 'We want young men. Where are the young men?'. But we told them there were no young men in our house, only an old man. So they got us out of the house and they told us 'Don't come back'."
As they were talking, the hum of an Israeli Apache helicopter stirred them, and they took off down the dusty street, their dark overcoats flapping behind them as they ran to safety in a local United Nations school.
Israel's Operation Rainbow entered its third day yesterday, and the Palestinian death toll crept up to an estimated 39, men and children, militants and innocents. The count over the past three days includes 10 people killed in an Israeli army strike on a peaceful demonstration on Wednesday.
In the wake of this incident, the Israeli army continues demolishing more homes and advancing its armoured tanks into more neighbourhoods in what it says is a hunt for militants and tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Locals again reported that the Israeli army continued to attempt to round up men aged up to 45, demanding through loudspeaker announcements that they leave their houses.
Sporadic cracks of gunfire could be heard throughout the day yesterday in many parts of Rafah, including the Tel Sultan district, which is completely isolated from the rest of the town, its residents under curfew since the early hours of Tuesday. Local officials warned yesterday of a looming humanitarian crisis there unless electricity and water supplies were restored. Rafah's mayor, Mr Saeed Zuroub, said the Israelis allowed them yesterday to distribute two small cars full of food and bread to Tel Sultan's 27,000 besieged residents, but this was far from sufficient.
The streets of Rafah town were largely deserted yesterday, most of its shops closed.
The Israeli army denied reports that it had destroyed the town's small zoo, one of the few amusement amenities in this impoverished area, but there were local reports that some animals had escaped, including an ostrich and a parrot.
At lunchtime a flag-waving crowd set off for the funeral procession of five people killed in Wednesday's attack. "By our blood and souls we redeem you martyrs," they chanted.
At 4.30 p.m. several UN lorries rumbled into the centre, bringing bedding, food and water for the latest batch of displaced residents seeking shelter in the UNWRA-run Rafah Elementary Girls' School.
Families gathered round the school's central courtyard yesterday, distressed at the loss of their homes but relieved to have found refuge, at least for now. Most of the displaced families originally sought refuge here in 1949 when they were uprooted by Israel's war of independence. This week thousands have found themselves homeless again.
Sabrine Abdulal (23) sat in the shade outside one of the rooms with a group of other women and her husband, her nine-month-old baby Dima in her lap.
"The Israeli tanks rolled into our area at about 2 a.m," she said. "The bulldozers started demolishing some homes just in front of us.
"We felt them getting closer and closer to us, especially when they destroyed a family meeting hall 30 metres away. We waited until the tanks pulled a bit back and then we left the house at around five."
She said the Israelis called for men under 45 to go to an area near one stadium and men under 45 to go to another. None did.
As darkness fell last night, the gunfire once more intensified around Rafah, and Apache helicopters could be heard in the sky. And so, for the the fourth night in succession, the 147,000 residents of Rafah town and refugee camp once again braced themselves for what Operation Rainbow would deliver.