At 10am on Saturday morning ISM activists based in Rafah (a town at the southern extremity of the Gaza Strip) set out to clear a military roadblock that cuts the road between Rafah and the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. They were accompanied by ambulances from Rafah that have been forced by the roadblock to take a circuitous eastern route to Khan Yunis extending the journey from 7 minutes to up to half an hour.

The six activists from the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Italy and the United States cleared away the rubble and stones of the roadblock so that by noon they had cleared a path for the ambulances to pass through.

They then turned to another much larger roadblock about a hundred metres further up the road. This roadblock consisted on two massive concrete barriers buried in sand. Beyond the roadblock was a stretch of road that had been rendered impassible to non-military vehicles. Beyond this a bypass road (reserved for the exclusive use of Jews) bisected the road to Khan Younis

The roadblock was guarded by two Israeli soldiers who ordered the activists to leave the area. The ISM activists ignored the order and proceeded to clear away the sand.

As they worked a military jeep arrived and some soldiers got out and pointed their rifles at the activists ordering them to leave but they refused, stating that the soldiers' Occupation of the Gaza Strip was illegal under international law and they had no intention of obeying the illegal order.

Later another jeep arrived with the soldiers' commanding officer who told the ISM activists that the road would not be opened in the foreseeable future because it was "more convenient" for the military not to allow any Palestinian traffic to use the road. Even ambulances would not be allowed to pass, because they might be used as car bombs. (There is a dire shortage of ambulances throughout Occupied Palestine and many have been shot up by the soldiers of the occupying army, making it very unlikely that any of the Palestinian resistance would use them as car bombs.)

The officer, Lieutenant Josse Dovid, said that the security of the settlement was more important than the time it took ambulances to reach the Khan Younis hospital. He went on to state that he and his men were "only following orders" and that every roadblock such as this was approved by "a power above that of the IDF".

The conversation continued for more than an hour during which Lieutenant Dovid denied knowledge that Israeli tanks fired indiscriminately into houses in Rafah, claiming that the Israeli Occupation Force operates under strict rules of engagement prohibiting such actions and that the only people killed in such operations are terrorists. When the ISM activists insisted that they lived in Rafah and had seen for themselves that this was not the case he promised that he would take up the issue with the responsible officer.

Having obtained this promise and realising that any further work they did dismantling the roadblock could be instantly undone by an Israeli military tractor, the ISM activists retired to their base in Rafah.

The ISM activists based in Rafah constitute the newest ISM group in the Occupied Territories and the only international presence in the area that monitors Israeli activities in the Rafah area. The people of Rafah have told them that since their arrival the numbers of murders and demolitions carried out by the occupying army in area have fallen dramatically.

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