This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Lists In 2004, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rainbow in Cloud (Hebrew: מבצע קשת בענן, romanized: Mivtza Keshet Be-Anan) in the southern Gaza Strip on 12–24 May 2004, involving an invasion and siege of Rafah.

[1][5] Human Rights Watch reported 59 Palestinians killed during 12–24 May, including 11 under age eighteen and 18 armed men.

Israel's declared aims of Operation Rainbow were finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting terrorists, and securing the Philadelphi Route by expanding the buffer zone.

In response to a repeated shelling of Israeli communities with Qassam rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, the IDF operated mainly in Rafah – to search and destroy smuggling tunnels used by militants to obtain weapons, ammunition, fugitives, cigarettes, car parts, electrical goods, foreign currency, gold, drugs, and cloth from Egypt.

Persons entering or approaching the buffer zone, including humanitarian workers, foreign dignitaries and UN observers came under fire.

In 2002, the IDF destroyed hundreds of houses in Rafah, needed for expansion of the buffer zone and the building of an eight meter high and 1.6 kilometers long metal wall along the border.

According to Human Rights Watch, the wall was built far inside the demolished area to create a new starting point for justifying further demolitions.

[2] According to HRW, the IDF's justifications for the destruction were doubtful and rather consistent with the goal of having a wide and empty border area to facilitate long-term control over the Gaza Strip.

[9] On 17 May, the IDF launched "Operation Rainbow" with the objectives: finding and destroying smuggling tunnels, targeting "terrorists", and securing the Philadelphi Route.

Israeli media mentioned anti-aircraft missiles and long-range rockets waiting to get in, possibly via tunnels underneath the Suez canal.

No captures of such weapons are known, and a high-ranking Egyptian official interviewed by Human Rights Watch denied the existence of the shipment.

The two separate attacks, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border, claimed the lives of 11 IDF soldiers.

In the evening, the IDF attacked Rafah with tanks and helicopter gunships, firing shells and missiles as residents fled.

[2] On 14 May, a large IDF force entered the "Brazil block" of Rafah and in a heavy fighting, as reported by UNWRA, 12 Palestinians were killed and 52 injured.

[6][8] Around midnight the same day, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an interim order temporarily barring the IDF from demolishing homes in the refugee camp, if the action was not part of "a regular military operation".

[16] Under pressure of sharp international criticism, the Israel government declared on 18 May that the plan to widen a buffer zone along the Egyptian border was cancelled,[17] while the same day, the army massively invaded Rafah and continued its large-scale destruction.

[8] The next day, the United Nations Security Council adopted "Resolution 1544", condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians and the demolition of homes.

[17] On 19 May, the IDF ordered all males in Tel al-Sultan aged 16 years and above to gather at an UNRWA school and carried out house-to-house searches.

The IDF ordered all males in Abu Halaweh aged 16 years and above to gather and carried out house-to-house searches and demolitions.

[11] In Tel al-Sultan, the IDF destroyed with bulldozers and tanks two large agricultural areas full of greenhouses.

[16] During the early hours of 24 May, Israeli forces withdrew completely from Tel al-Sultan, but remained present in the Brazil area until the end of the month.

According to Human Rights Watch, the deliberate and time-consuming nature of the destruction, the seizure of the four-story Juma’ house, and the stationing of several tanks there for over a day means that it was not an action en route, but rather part of enforcing a cordon.

Due to the use of armored bulldozers and tanks, extensive damage was caused to schools, roads, water and sewage pipes and agricultural areas with greenhouses, resulting in floods and risk of disease.

Human rights groups estimated that the army had demolished some 170–180 buildings in Rafah, including some 300 homes.