Riots Feared if Israelis Leave Gaza Suddenly

By Crosby S. Noyes, Star Staff Correspondent, United Nations, N. Y.

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“UNITED NATIONS, N. Y., Feb. 16.—Responsible United Nations officials, recently returned from the Middle East, believe a sudden withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the Gaza Strip would result in ‘terrible disorders’ among the 200,000 Arab refugees there. The officials, who declined to be quoted by name, have reported to top U.

N. and American officials that unless sufficient forces are on hand to take over immediately from the Israeli Army, the probability of rioting and mob reprisal actions is acute… As for political administration, there is no agency within the U. N. capable of taking over immediately the job of administering the Gaza Strip. Present U.

N. responsibilities in the area are confined to food distribution, medical care and education for about two-thirds of the entire population… Experience during the first change of management in the strip in November lends force to these warnings. The days following the Israeli takeover were marked by disruption of normal services and food distributions.

Riots followed in which food depots were destroyed and some $275,000 of supplies and equipment lost as the result of looting, burning and military action. Two serious clashes between refugees and Israeli forces at Khan Yunis and Rafah resulted in 386 civilian dead, according to U. N. figures.

Another 66 refugees and local residents of the strip were killed in scattered incidents. The results of a changeover without adequate security forces on hand, it is felt, could be even more serious. The mood of the local refugee population is described as ‘disturbed,’ despite strenuous efforts of the Israeli regime to restore order.

The implication seems to be that anyone who holds the Gaza strip today, has a tiger by the tail, and that more than normal caution is needed to let go.”

Context added by this archive

Three hundred and eighty-six civilian dead at Khan Yunis and Rafah, with United Nations figures attached, printed in Washington in February 1957. The subheadings are “No Suitable Agency” and “Would Need Big Force.”

The story calls the Gaza Strip the disputed territory and calls the Israeli administration a regime, and it runs beside an advertisement for sixteen dance lessons for nine dollars.

Cite this clipping

"Riots Feared if Israelis Leave Gaza Suddenly," Evening Star, 17 February 1957, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1957-011. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1957-011