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Egypt tries to seal Gaza border
25/01/2008 17:08 - (SA)
Rafah, Gaza Strip - Egypt on Friday sought to seal its border with Gaza, using electric batons to herd Palestinians back into the territory in a bid to stem a three-day uncontrolled flood of people.
But despite a looming 13:00 GMT Egyptian deadline for resealing the frontier, Gazan militants ploughed a new breach in the border wall, allowing dozens to cross over as Egyptian police stood by.
Police had earlier blocked Gazans from crossing over into Egypt through the largest of the breaches which militants blew in the border wall on Tuesday night in the divided frontier town of Rafah, sparking an exodus of hundreds of thousands.
Egyptian security forces used electric batons to push back those trying to get into Egypt and to corral others back into the Gaza Strip, witnesses said, as Egyptian armoured vehicles arrived with coils of barbed wire in readiness to reseal numerous minor border breaches.
Egyptian security forces also barred trucks of goods carrying everything from blankets to motorbikes from crossing the Suez Canal on their way from Cairo to replenish Rafah's depleted stocks, an AFP correspondent reported.
"I only spent an hour there because the Egyptians told us that the frontier would be closed," said Um Nidal as she returned to Gaza after visiting her son in El-Arish who she had not seen for years.
Salim Waqad, 53, and his wife also went to see their son in El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, about 45km from the border.
"We did some shopping as well," he says, brandishing shopping bags full of washing powder and potato chips. "Unfortunately we don't have enough money to buy anything else."
The move to close the border came as an Israeli air strike killed the Hamas military commander for Rafah and one of his lieutenants early on Friday.
Two other members of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza were killed on Thursday night when two Israeli missiles slammed into their jeep, medical sources said.
'A difficult situation'
Witnesses and Hamas security sources said that Egyptian police had set up checkpoints to prevent Palestinians travelling to El-Arish.
The United Nations said at least 700 000 Gazans have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies since the border was blasted open on Tuesday - nearly half the territory's population of 1.5 million.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier called on Egypt to control its border as Israel defended its week-old Gaza lockdown that has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory.
"I understand it is a difficult situation for them (Egypt)," Rice said after arriving in Colombia for meetings.
"But it is an international border, it needs to be protected and I believe that the Egyptians understand the importance of doing that."
President Hosni Mubarak repeated Egypt's readiness to resume mediation efforts between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement.
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