Israel Matzav: Gaza - Egypt border is open (UPDATED)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Gaza - Egypt border is open (UPDATED)

Yesterday, Egyptian troops opened fire on 'Palestinians' (mostly women as you will note from both that article and the video below) trying to cross the border into Egypt at Rafah, wounding some ninety people. Despite the fact that, as you will see below, the shooting started from the 'Palestinian' side, the footage you are about to see from al-Jazeera did not do wonders for the Mubarak government on the 'Arab street' last night. Here's what happened yesterday:

Today, the 'Palestinians' once again approached the border, and this time, rather than have more bad publicity on al-Jazeera, the Egyptians have let them through:

Egyptian border guards and Hamas police took no action as Palestinians hurried over the border and began returning with bags of food, boxes of cigarettes and plastic bottles of fuel.

The chaotic scenes came on the sixth day of a complete closure of Gaza, imposed by Israel and backed by Egypt, in response to a spike in Gaza rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. Hamas has orchestrated daily demonstrations on the Gaza-Egypt border, in an apparent attempt to appeal to Arab public opinion and pressure Egypt to open the passage.

On Tuesday, Israel eased the closure slightly, transferring fuel to restart Gaza's only power plant, and also sent in some cooking gas, food and medicine. Israel has pledged to continue limited shipments because of concerns that a humanitarian crisis could develop.

Before dawn Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen began blowing holes in the border wall running along the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas security later closed most holes, but left two open and allowed free traffic through those.

The wall divides the town of Rafah, which has a Gazan and an Egyptian side.

Gazan Ibrahim Abu Taha, 45, a father of seven, was in the Egyptian section of Rafah with his two brothers and 700 shekels in his pocket. "We want to buy food, we want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese," Abu Taha said, adding that he would also buy cheap Egyptian cigarettes.

Abu Taha said he could get such basic foods in Gaza, but at three times the cost.

Hamas appears to be applying pressure on Egypt, which has cooperated with Israel's sanctions by keeping the Rafah border closed. By affecting public opinion in Egypt, scenes of privation in Gaza could force Egypt to ease the border closure, allowing the Hamas regime to relieve its isolation.

An off-duty Hamas security officer who identified himself as Abdel Rahman, 29, said this was his first time out of Gaza. "I can smell the freedom," he said. "We need no border after today."

Abdel Rahman said no weapons were being smuggled in from Egypt. "You can buy weapons in Gaza, guns and RPGs," he said, adding that it was easier to find weapons in Gaza than cancer medicine or Coke.

That's keeping priorities straight, isn't it? And you thought they had no money....

But give them a ~~state~~ reichlet and they'll be so wealthy that they won't bother forcing their way into Egypt anymore.

/sarc

Update 7:00 PM

The United Nations now estimates that 350,000 'Palestinians' have crossed into Egypt. Israel Radio reports that other estimates are as high as 500,000. Here's a video shot earlier today:

The IDF is not thrilled about this, to put it mildly. You will note that in the video, they said that the expectation is that most of these people will return. When they return, they are likely to bring more weapons and ammunition into the already heavily-armed Strip. The government also fears that control of the border will be handed over to the 'Palestinian Authority,' and in fact, Hamas is seeking 'negotiations' to do just that.