[Bluestar]

Gazans flood through Egypt border


Thousands of Palestinians have surged into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after masked militants destroyed parts of the border wall.

Gazans rushed to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce because of an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Egyptian police have so far taken no action to stop people crossing.

The militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, had urged Egypt to open its border over the past few days.

The Gaza Strip has been short of fuel and other essential goods since last week, when Israel imposed the blockade.

It was eased slightly on Tuesday to allow some fuel and medicines through.r

Early on Wednesday gunmen set off a number of explosions along the wall near the Rafah crossing.

The BBC's Ian Pannell, who is on the Egyptian side of the border, says thousands of Palestinians have crossed through the breached wall and were stocking up on essentials, petrol and cigarettes.

Among them was Ibrahim Abu Taha, a father of seven, who told the Associated Press news agency:

"We want to buy food, we want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese."

Water cannon

In 2005, Hamas militants blew up holes in the border with Egypt following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

Wednesday's scenes at the Rafah crossing come a day after Egyptian police broke up a protest there by women.

In New York on Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian envoys had clashed at the United Nations Security Council during a debate on Israel's blockade.

The Palestinian UN observer accused Israel of fuelling violence, while the Israeli envoy said his country had to protect its people from rocket attacks.

The council was considering a call for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza freely.

Tuesday's council debate had been requested by Arab and Islamic states amid a growing international outcry at what the European Union termed the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5m residents.

Some council members have been pushing for a compromise resolution, condemning the rocket attacks and recognising "Israel's rights to self-defence", but also urging the Israelis to lift the closure.

However Israeli representative Gilad Cohen denied that Israel was violating international law.

"It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism," he said, adding that Israel would "ensure the humanitarian welfare" of Gaza.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Gazans flood through Egypt border

[MossadConspiracy]

salam

they werent getting back home, they were going into Egypt to buy stuff. inshallah nothing bad will happen

ws

[Bluestar]

you're right this is why bluestar should never listen to the radio when she's sleeping.

I'm surprised they have money to buy it with, i remember when the people in Gaza weren't being paid for ages and kept on working

[Kaminyu]

Originally Posted by Bluestar

Gazans flood through Egypt border


Thousands of Palestinians have surged into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after masked militants destroyed parts of the border wall.

Gazans rushed to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce because of an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Egyptian police have so far taken no action to stop people crossing.

The militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, had urged Egypt to open its border over the past few days.

The Gaza Strip has been short of fuel and other essential goods since last week, when Israel imposed the blockade.

It was eased slightly on Tuesday to allow some fuel and medicines through.r

Early on Wednesday gunmen set off a number of explosions along the wall near the Rafah crossing.

The BBC's Ian Pannell, who is on the Egyptian side of the border, says thousands of Palestinians have crossed through the breached wall and were stocking up on essentials, petrol and cigarettes.

Among them was Ibrahim Abu Taha, a father of seven, who told the Associated Press news agency:

"We want to buy food, we want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese."

Water cannon

In 2005, Hamas militants blew up holes in the border with Egypt following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

Wednesday's scenes at the Rafah crossing come a day after Egyptian police broke up a protest there by women.

In New York on Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian envoys had clashed at the United Nations Security Council during a debate on Israel's blockade.

The Palestinian UN observer accused Israel of fuelling violence, while the Israeli envoy said his country had to protect its people from rocket attacks.

The council was considering a call for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza freely.

Tuesday's council debate had been requested by Arab and Islamic states amid a growing international outcry at what the European Union termed the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5m residents.

Some council members have been pushing for a compromise resolution, condemning the rocket attacks and recognising "Israel's rights to self-defence", but also urging the Israelis to lift the closure.

However Israeli representative Gilad Cohen denied that Israel was violating international law.

"It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism," he said, adding that Israel would "ensure the humanitarian welfare" of Gaza.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Gazans flood through Egypt border

So much for the effectiveness of Israel's blockade against the Gazans. This situation could actually work against the Israelis now.

[ChotooMotoo]

Originally Posted by Bluestar

you're right this is why bluestar should never listen to the radio when she's sleeping.

I'm surprised they have money to buy it with, i remember when the people in Gaza weren't being paid for ages and kept on working

Well, you know work is more than money. It's incredibly demoralizing to have nothing to do to support your family. Even if you're not being paid, or being paid very little, at least you know you're doing SOMETHING with your time. You should read about the WPA projects of the great depression. People came to those projects, were put in dangerous conditions, and paid next to nothing, but they were sooo happy just to be doing something. I think Palestinians must feel the same way. May Allah (swt) give them sabr and ease their suffering.

[Bluestar]

I know, they've been doing it for ages, because in the end, it's not about whether they can pay their rent or bills/food expenses but about keeping society itself going.

Kaminyu, yes it could and i hope it does. But mostly, i admire the Gazan's strength.

[MossadConspiracy]

Inshallah I hope things dont get too crazy there. There are 2 very scary things going on here. First is that last time this happened, only a couple of thousand palestinians crossed the border and it ended with Egyptians getting murdered. So inshallah the Palestinians will buy what they want and maybe get some supplies from the Egyptian government then go back in an orderly way.... make dua for that. Second is that terrorist groups in Sinai are connected to groups in Gaza. The wilder this situation gets, the more likely it will be for hotels and restaurants to get bombed.

Make dua it ends peacefully

ws

[zzze]

assalamu alaykum

May Allah swt grant them success. Ameen.

[MossadConspiracy]

another consideration is that if the border stays open, Israel might take it as an excuse to dump Gaza into Egypt's lap by basically completely sealing it off and ending all shipments of products, food, electricity, water, fuel, etc. and leaving it to be dependent on Egypt. This is a very real risk because Israeli officials have been talking about doing this for the last year or so and have been "wondering aloud" about it to the media all day today

[MossadConspiracy]

Egypt starts to control crowds from Gaza By OMAR SINAN and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago



Egypt began trying to control the masses of Palestinians flooding in from the Gaza Strip Thursday, stopping some from moving deeper into Egypt. But authorities did not attempt to reseal the breached border with the Palestinian territory.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for Gaza, including the supply of electricity and water, now that Gaza's southern border with Egypt has been opened.

Egypt immediately rejected the idea.

On the Egyptian side of the border, helmeted riot police with dogs used batons to beat the hoods of Egyptian cars and trucks offering rides to Palestinians seeking to buy goods in towns out of walking range.

Dozens of Egyptian guards pushed their way through the crowds but did nothing to halt the thousands of Palestinians moving over the wreckage of a metal wall brought down when Palestinian gunmen blasted it with explosives a day earlier.

U.S. and Arab officials said Wednesday that Egypt had assured the United States it would soon reseal the border.

An Arab diplomat said Egypt told the U.S. it expected the Palestinians' exodus from Gaza to end by midday Thursday. But a senior U.S. official said Egypt has not been precise about when it will stop the flow.

The crush of people at the border appeared to intensify at midday, with Gazans saying they feared the Egyptian authorities would soon close the crossing.

"Everyone is rushing into Egypt before they seal it off," said Mohammed Abu Amra, a Palestinian man walking with crutches.

He slipped and fell as he passed into Egypt.

Meanwhile, Israel floated the idea of cutting Gaza off entirely.

Privately, several Israeli officials have said Wednesday's border breach was a positive development that would ease pressure on Israel to keep providing for Gaza's basic needs, and could pave the way for increasingly disconnecting from the territory.

"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it," Vilnai said, according to his office. "So we want to disconnect from it."

"We want to stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine, so that it would come from another place," Vilnai said.

Israel will continue to be responsible for the flow of such supplies into the Gaza Strip until an alternative is found, the office quoted him as saying.

A top Egyptian official responded by saying Egypt's border with Gaza will go back to normal, and strongly rejected Israel's suggestion that it might relinquish all responsibility for troubled Gaza.

"This is a wrong assumption," said Hossam Zaki, the official spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry. "The current situation is only an exception and for temporary reasons," Zaki said. "The border will go back to normal."

Zaki said Egypt had not been formally approached by Israel about any such proposal.

Israel said earlier that it would not send emergency shipments of fuel on Thursday, as it had initially promised earlier in the week. The fuel is needed to run Gaza City's power plant. The plane had shut down after Israel imposed a complete closure on Gaza last week, in response to rocket attacks.

The Palestinian Energy Authority said the Gaza plant would have to shut down again by Sunday, unless shipments are renewed.

When Israel initially imposed a complete blockade last week, tacitly backed by Egypt, international aid groups voiced concern about an impending humanitarian crisis.

Israel is still trying to get clarification from Egypt on if and when it plans to close the border, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

In downtown Rafah, Palestinians could be seen buying cows, camels and horses and leading them back through the passage into Gaza. Men loaded with electronics equipment struggled to step through the broken opening.

Egyptian drivers idled their pickup trucks just inside Egyptian territory, charging incoming Palestinians $3.60 for a ride into downtown Rafah and neighboring El Arish.

Others carted cement bags, motorcycles, generators, gasoline cans and canned food toward Gaza to be unloaded and handed over the border.

Several Egyptian armored vehicles towed cars away from a lot on the Egyptian side of the border, attaching ropes to empty pickups and dragging them hundreds of yards away.

Egyptian police were also deployed on main shopping thoroughfares and in alleyways in Rafah, but they did not attempt to force Palestinians to leave the city.

The border breach has been a boon to Hamas, the militant group whose hold on Gaza was made more difficult by border closures. The closures, which were tightened after Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June, have led to severe shortages of cement, cigarette and other basic goods.

Hamas has used the border breach — which was carefully planned, with militants weakening the metal wall with blow torches about a month ago — to push its demand for reopening the border passages, this time with Hamas involvement. Such an arrangement would in effect end the international sanctions against the Islamic militants.

Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu suggested Thursday that Hamas would seek a role in a future on the Gaza-Egypt border.

"An open border like this has no logic," he said. "We are studying the mechanism of having an official crossing point."

It appears unlikely Egypt will acquiesce. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been under intense public pressure at home in recent days to alleviate the suffering of Gazans under blockade. However, Egypt would likely be reluctant to have an open border with a territory ruled by Islamic militants.

Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, has expressed concern that militants and weapons might be entering Gaza to bolster rocket launchings toward Israel, and said responsibility for restoring order lies with Egypt.

The United States also expressed concern about the border breach. Hamas called on its bitter rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, to help come up with new arrangements for Gaza's crossings.

Meanwhile, trucks and donkey carts pulled up to the Egyptian side, where goods were unloaded, carried across to the Gazan side and put in waiting trucks.

Gaza businessman Abu Omar Shurafa received a shipment of 100 tons of cement, seizing an opportunity to stock up before the border closes again.

"Everyone is exerting all efforts to stock the reserves for six to seven months. We have to find a way to continue living," he said.

Still, he was also hopeful that this could be the beginning of a new arrangement. "A solution has to be like this," he said, referring to the flow of goods from Egypt.

The town of Rafah was divided in two when Israel captured the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war, and crossing the border has become increasingly difficult over the years.

The opening of the border began before dawn Wednesday, when masked gunmen used 17 explosive charges to tear down the border wall — erected in 2001 by Israel when it controlled Gaza.

After news of the breach spread, people across Gaza boarded buses and piled into rickety pickup trucks heading for Egypt. It was a rare chance to escape Gaza's isolation.

By nightfall Wednesday, more than 1,000 Gazans had reached El-Arish, about 37 miles south of Rafah, walking the streets and shopping in stores that stayed open late.

Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk to the media, said that Palestinians were not being allowed to travel further south than El-Arish.

Its already starting to happen, Israel and Hamas are going to turn Gaza into an Egyptian dependency

[Variable]

Looks like things are getting tense.

[Jamroll]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

Its already starting to happen, Israel and Hamas are going to turn Gaza into an Egyptian dependency

Would Egypt not be happy with such a situation?

[Aryan_]

Originally Posted by Jamroll

Would Egypt not be happy with such a situation?

They'd want the land, but not the people. Arab disloyalty/treachery.

[MossadConspiracy]