2 000 pilgrims trapped in Egypt
2007-12-29 17:11
El-Arish - Close to two thousand Palestinian pilgrims who arrived in Egypt on Saturday protested Egyptian demands that they return to the Gaza Strip through an Israeli-controlled border crossing, security officials and pilgrims said.
The Palestinians, who recently finished their pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, arrived on two ferries at the port city of Nuweiba on the Sinai Peninsula from Jordan, an Egyptian security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
The radical Islamic group Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in June, said there were a total of 1 900 pilgrims on the boats.
Fearing arrest, senior Hamas officials among the pilgrims have resisted Egyptian attempts to have them enter through the Israeli-controlled Aouja crossing, the Egyptian security official said.
Al-Jazeera television aired interviews with the pilgrims before they left Jordan in which they showed a paper Egypt allegedly asked them to sign saying they would to return to Gaza through Aouja.
Israel fears that if the pilgrims are allowed to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is outside the country's control, they might smuggle millions of dollars to Hamas.
Israel's concerns dismissed
Israeli officials have said the Egyptians agreed to have the pilgrims use the Aouja crossing after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak's recent visit to Egypt.
Senior Palestinian officials dismissed Israel's concerns, saying the Egyptians could search the pilgrims for smuggled cash.
"Israelis raise trivial issues and complicate things to cover up criticism over continued construction of settlements," said Mohammed Sobeih, the Arab League's undersecretary general.
The standoff angered Hamas, who said Egypt has a responsibility to bring the pilgrims back to Gaza as quickly as possible.
Some 5 000 people waving Palestinian and Hamas flags gathered on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt on Saturday and demanded the pilgrims be allowed to enter.
"We won't accept any excuse for preventing the pilgrims from returning," read a banner carried by one of the protestors.
Egyptian riot police arrived and mounted a machine gun on a building overlooking the corridor separating Egypt from Gaza. Hamas security positioned themselves between the protestors and the border gate.
Rioting
In Gaza late on Friday, angry Hamas loyalists fired their guns in the air and lobbed sound bombs in protest of Egypt's actions. The rioting was quickly quelled by Hamas security.
Hamas government spokesperson Taher Nunu said on Saturday that 1 900 pilgrims are caught in limbo at sea and urged Egypt "to urgently end their plight."
"We in the government and the people refuse to use (the Israeli) crossing. The pilgrims have the right to return the same way they exited," he said.
Hamas lawmaker Yehia Moussa said Egypt has a moral obligation to bring the pilgrims back home.
"We demand an immediate end to the situation before we get to popular reactions with undesired consequences," he said.
Moussa said it was not a threat, but "the public has the right to protest and revolt against the closure."
- AP