Today in Labor History March 16, 2003: Israeli Defense Forces murdered American activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah by running over her with a bulldozer during the 2nd Intifada. She had been defending a Palestinian home that the IDF was trying to demolish as part of their collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Corie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement. She had travelled to Rafah as part of her college's (Evergreen State, in Olympia, WA) senior-year independent-study project to connect Olympia and Rafah with each other as sister cities. Under Trump, her college would likely be stripped of federal funding for allowing such a project, and Corie, herself, might have been deemed a terrorist.
According to a January 2025 report, by the United Nations Office of Coordinated Human Affairs, 92% of all housing units in Gaza are now either destroyed, or severely damaged. 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents are internally displaced. And 345,000 face catastrophic food insecurity.
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-14-january-2025