Egypt opens Palestine border
2008-03-02 14:21
El Arish - Egypt opened its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to receive wounded Palestinians on Sunday, a day after 54 people were killed in Israel's latest offensive against militants firing rockets from the territory, said a medical official.
Egypt sent 27 ambulances to the Rafah crossing to transfer 150-200 wounded Palestinians to hospitals in the Sinai Peninsula and other cities on the mainland, said Emad Kharboush, a medical official at el-Arish hospital near the Israeli border.
"We have mobilised all our efforts to receive and treat our Palestinian brothers in our hospitals," Kharboush told The Associated Press.
Sunday was the first time Egypt has agreed to open the crossing since the militant Palestinian group Hamas blew up part of the border wall on January 23, letting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cross over.
- AP