Pilgrims stuck in Gaza

2008-11-29 14:15

Gaza City - The Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza prevented scores of Muslim faithful wanting to head off on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca from reaching the Rafah border with Egypt on Saturday, witnesses and would-be pilgrims said.

Hamas police set up checkpoints several kilometres from the border between the city of Khan Yunis and the Rafah crossing to stop anyone passing through, the witnesses said.

At least 10 people were lightly injured when the police used sticks and batons to turn people back, the witnesses added.

An Egyptian official had announced on Friday that the Rafah crossing would be open for three days from Saturday to allow the passage of about 3 000 Palestinian pilgrims who hold visas for Saudi Arabia.

But a Hamas spokesperson in Rafah, Adel Zahrb, insisted that he knew nothing about any Egyptian plans.

"We didn't receive any information from the Egyptian side about opening the crossing," he said, adding that nobody had passed through.

This year's haj has become embroiled in the deepening chasm that has cut through Palestinian politics since the Hamas seizure of Gaza in June last year.

Hamas refuses to recognise the authority of the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank which Western-backed president Mahmoud Abbas installed in response to the Gaza takeover.

In Gaza, the administration continues to be run by Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister whom Abbas ousted.

Last week Haniya's religious affairs minister Talep Abu Sher said he would not allow would-be pilgrims who had obtained their Saudi visas through the Palestinian government in the West Bank to join the haj unless the Hamas administration too is given a quota to allocate to the faithful.

- AFP