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Egypt Opens Border Crossing With Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY - Egypt opened its sealed border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, allowing hundreds of people to enter and leave the coastal territory in a goodwill gesture before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins, officials said.
Palestinians wait to cross into Egypt from Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip August 30, 2008. Egypt opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, allowing hundreds of people to leave the Hamas-controlled territory, Palestinian officials said. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) Palestinians who live abroad or are seeking medical treatment and Egyptians stuck in Gaza because of the sealed border gathered at dawn in a nearby sporting center, where Hamas police shipped them to the Rafah crossing in buses.
On the Egyptian side of the border, hundreds of Palestinians massed to cross back into Gaza after being shut out for months.
"I am going back home," said Umm Usama, an Egyptian woman married to a Palestinian man, who came to Gaza to visit relatives. "Thank you, President Mubarak, for letting us return home before Ramadan," which begins early next week.
Rafah was sealed after the militant Muslim Hamas group seized power in Gaza in June 2007, confining 1.5 million Gaza residents to the tiny coastal territory. Egyptian officials have infrequently opened the crossing since, though in January, Hamas gunmen breached the border, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Egyptians to cross back and forth before Egypt clamped it shut again.
Israel also has sealed its crossings with Gaza, only allowing in humanitarian aid and a trickle of commercial goods.
One Gaza resident who has lived in Saudi Arabia for 23 years said he came to visit his dying mother before the Hamas takeover and ended up stuck in the territory for 20 months.
Hamas' interior ministry, eager to demonstrate its ability to control security on the Gaza side of the crossing, did not allow residents to approach the southern passageway on Saturday morning. Palestinians have traditionally stormed the border when it has been pried open, chaotically jostling to get to the top of lines to leave Gaza.
People eligible to enter Egypt were told to gather at dawn in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, where their applications were processed. Buses crossed through to the Egyptian side where hundreds of police crowded to ensure security.
Some 1,000 residents left to Egypt by Saturday afternoon and an additional 500 Palestinians entered Gaza from Egypt, according to Gaza's Hamas interior ministry.
"We thank (Egyptian) President Hosni Mubarak for opening the crossing today, and we hope the opening days will be extended," said Hamas' prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, in a statement to the press.
Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the internationally recognized Palestinian government that rules the West Bank, also called on Egypt to keep the crossing open.
Over Saturday and Sunday, Egypt will allow Palestinian students enrolled in universities abroad to leave Gaza, along with those with foreign residencies and work visas. Numbers were not immediately available.
Around 300 Egyptians were stuck in Gaza after they entered the territory following Hamas' border breach. Some 400 Palestinians needing medical treatment also will head to Egypt on Sunday, officials said.
Associated Press Writer Ashraf Sweilam in Rafah, Egypt contributed to this report.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllAccording to the terms of the 1947 United Nations partition plan, the Gaza area was to become part of a new Arab state.
The world is still waiting...
That's the 1947 plan that the Arabs refused to abide by. Remember Israel was ready for partition of the mandate, it was the Arabs who attacked.
Sam Abrams, Rochester NY
Well smarba, that's one version of the story.
Well that part happens to be true. Isreal was established by a vote of the United Nations. There is no other story there. That is exactly the way it happened.
I take exception to the wording that the Arabs "attacked." There understandably were riots and skirmishes by the Palestinians over the disproportionate allocations of land. I rather think it might be viewed as Palestinians "defending" their rights and later their neighbors aiding the defenseless Palestinians.
It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them
I had this conversation recently with a friend who is informed about the region. I think this is an example of humanitarian and solidarity activists making Israel ashamed of itself (not to mention Egypt). What is needed is pressure on Egypt, at least, to leave the border open permanently. In my opinion, Israel is in some blind moral abyss regarding the welfare of Palestinians and can no longer be trusted to react rationally or humanely. Excuse me Mr. Barzak of the Associated Press but Hamas did not seize control of anything in June 2007 but rather were democratically elected by Palestinins in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in January 2006.
That is a sad day in the history of the world. Knowing that people have no right to go where they want. No dictator from Israel or Egypt should have the right on the life of someone for the name of security. Get in track Mr. Mubarak and work with your people to allow them a decent life. The dictator is dead; long live the dictator some must say. What a circus is this world, what a bunch of clowns are those in power. Clowns that are in charge of the life of so many. I urge the people to charge the border, maybe hundred would die but this is unacceptable. Thank you Mr. Mubarak the dictator, I would say f. you Mr. Mubarak.
And you Smarba what are you so proud of? The Arabs refuse; do you know the details of that plan in 1947? First the Israel shouldn't exist period, get out of that territory that is not yours.
I am sick of your claims and your hypocrisies and your world domination.
AldoinSF
I came accross a piece recently about AP in Israel. The "journalism" even by AP's standards leaves much to be desired. We can only hope that facts on the ground will eventually force the militant European Zionists to accept peace. The accumulation of missles by their neighbors and demographics may do it. The retaliation with missles may end Israeli aggression. More European Zionists are leaving Israel than coming. Accept the existing peace plan! PEACE
Notice how the article is framed: That it is Egypt which sealed its borders and "Israel also has sealed its crossings with Gaza, only allowing in humanitarian aid and a trickle of commercial goods."
So the whole closure idea appears to be Egypt's, with the Israeli's just going along, while allowing in humanitarian aid. But a look at the facts shows that this is false and biased.
I was about to ask about that. I understood from information I got here and links from other posters that Israel controlled the border between Gaza and Egypt, not Egypt.
So are you saying Egypt controls their border with Gaza and Israel controls hers with Gaza? That Egypt could open their border any time she pleased?
Thomas More, my understanding of the situation is that it is a bit more complicated than how you have put it. The Egyptians sealed their border because they and Israel oppose Hamas being in control in Gaza. They want to reinstate a no longer viable international agreement that had Fatah controling the Rafah crossing with European monitors. No more Fatah, so no more Fatah control of the crossing on the Palestinian side.
In addition, Egypt doesn't want to become de facto responsible for the humanitarian crises caused by the occupation and subsequent military acts of and embargo by the Israelis. Does this make them complicit? Yes. But, they are a much poorer country, probably feel that they are being set-up by Israel and so far have refused to take on this burden that is Gaza that Israel is all to eager to be rid of.
The Associated Press may not be a news source that is trustworthy. It looks like some biases that are based in Republican Party talking points are being uncovered in AP articles:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/29/politics/animal/main4395441.shtml
selected quote
"MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, soon after the AP piece hit the wires, read excerpts before trouncing the ridiculous analysis. "It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched," Olbermann said. "None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization. Charles Babington, find a new line of work."
That's reasonable advice, but I'd just add that it's time for the AP to take a long look in the mirror. The man responsible for directing the wire service's coverage of the presidential campaign, Ron Fournier, considered joining the McCain campaign's payroll just last year, and his "leadership" has taken the AP in an unprofessional direction. Its coverage of the race has not only been biased and misleading, but has become an embarrassment to once-great media institution.
The Associated Press is just too important to slip so far from where it once was. It can become credible again, but the service is in desperate need of sweeping changes."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
I hope and pray for the people living in Gaza who are the innocents caught between a violent struggle.
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
Mubarak The Torturer is thanked not once but twice in this weird article.
And Israel let's in humanitarian aid?
Gee, those Sweet Nazis.