As Egypt seals the border, Palestinians open it again to get supplies

Saturday January 26, 2008 12:41 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Ageinces ghassanb at imemc dot org

On Friday late a night the Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians living in Gaza breached a section of the iron wall surrounding the Gaza Strip after Egyptian troops closed a previous breach in the wall on Friday afternoon.

Last Wednesday at dawn the Palestinian resistance destroyed part of the wall at the southern part of the strip at the borders with Egypt using five home made bombs, shortly afterwards thousands of Palestinians rushed through to buy food and fuel supplies from Egypt to bring back to the isolated Gaza Strip.

For the days followed the Egyptian government allowed Palestinian to continue shopping in Egypt and come back to the Coastal Region.

The United Stats of America and Israeli slammed Egypt for the move and said that the Palestinian resistance will enter Gaza from Egypt.

Israeli threatened to step-up attacks on the coastal region and stop water from coming into Gaza. The Egyptian president said to reporters on Thursday that he will allow the Palestinian to get their supplies from Egypt as long as there is a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Two weeks ago the Israeli government decided to keep pressure on the Gaza Strip by further attacking Palestinian resistance groups. On Friday Israel declared all Gaza's crossings completely closed, with a total ban of fuel and supplies to the coastal region. By Sunday Gaza had no electricity as the Solo Gaza power plant depends on Israeli Fuel.

On Friday afternoon the Egyptian government announced it would close the crossing. Shortly after Egyptian troops sealed the borders and attacked the Palestinians civilians their using rite shields batons and water cannon, 22 Palestinians were injured, Palestinian sources reported, Egyptian Media said that 6 policemen were hurt when angry civilians responded by throwing stones at the Egyptian troops.

Later in the Evening Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians smashed a new hole in the Rafah Egypt border Wall using a bulldozer, Egyptian troops polled back and allowed Palestinian to inter Egypt again.

The Egyptian government decided to reseal the borders rafter it had been heavily criticized by Western powers. The US congress suspended on Friday $100 million of aid to Egypt for allowing the Palestinians to get into Egypt to get food to survive.

Limited clashes between Palestinians and Egyptian forces near the Rafah border

Date: 26 / 01 / 2008 Time: 10:39

Gaza – Ma'an –

Palestinian gunmen shot dead five police dogs and injured an Egyptian police officer on Friday evening in skirmishes between Egyptian border guards and Palestinians near the toppled border walls at the Rafah crossing.

One Palestinian was also injured.

Eyewitnesses told Ma'an that a number of Palestinians hurled stones at Egyptian forces, injuring five of them. The Egyptian forces redeployed at some distance from the toppled borders to avoid casualties on both sides as thousands of Gaza Strip citizens flooded towards the Egyptian territories.

Earlier a Palestinian bulldozer had overrun a barbed wire fence and demolished parts of the wall separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Friday afternoon. Egyptian forces fired gunshots into the air as well as tear gas canisters in order to disperse the crowds.

Palestinian medical sources told Ma'an that several people suffering from the effects of tear gas received medical treatment at Abu Yousif Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah.

On Wednesday Egyptian security forces stood and watched as tens of thousands of Palestinians crossed the border into Egypt after masked Palestinian fighters destroyed a portion of the border wall between Egypt and the Gaza Strip using explosives.

On Thursday Palestinians from the besieged coastal region again made for the shops in the Egyptian town of Al-Arish, buying up food supplies, as well as livestock, electrical equipment and cell phones. Cigarettes and cement were also high on their list of purchases.

Most of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents had been trapped inside the Gaza Strip since the Israeli occupation government closed the Gaza Strip border crossings in June, following the Hamas takeover.

The BBC reported that the UN estimates that as much as half of the population of Gaza has crossed the border into Egypt during the past four days.

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