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Egyptian troops pull back
26/01/2008 13:07 - (SA)
Rafah - Egyptian troops pulled back
overnight from the breached Gaza border after a security guard
was shot in the foot, allowing thousands of Palestinians to
stream across unhindered.
Witnesses said Palestinian taxis drove passengers across the
border three days after Palestinian militants blasted it open in
defiance of an Israeli blockade, and Gaza-plated cars and trucks
entered Egypt to bring back supplies of food and fuel.
No Egyptian soldiers were visible at the border. An Egyptian
security source said forces had received orders from Cairo to
pull back and avoid confronting Palestinians.
"I am entering with my car to get diesel. I went to the
petrol stations in Rafah but didn't find any, so I bought on the
black market," said taxi driver Abu Jihad, 48, of Khan Younis in
the Gaza Strip.
He said he had filled the tank of his taxi and had also
packed his car with jerrycans of diesel to bring back to
Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Mohamed Ali al-Shahed, 32, drove his car into Egypt to
retrieve a shipment of drugs ordered from Cairo for his pharmacy
in Rafah on the Palestinian side of the divided border town.
Medicine
"I haven't had new drugs in my pharmacy for seven months ...
Thank God the pharmacy now has medicine, and at more moderate
prices," he said as he drove back into Gaza, guiding an Egyptian
truck filled with medicines into the Palestinian territory.
Israel said it had imposed its blockade to try to counter
cross-border rocket fire.
The fall of the Rafah wall punched a
new hole in a US-backed campaign to curb Hamas's clout and
boost Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas nearly eight months
after the Islamist group routed Abbas's Fatah forces in Gaza.
< On Friday, Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire and
chain-link fences to stop more people crossing. But Hamas
militants, cheered on by crowds of Gazans, used a bulldozer to
flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence.
Tensions flared at one point when Palestinians threw stones
at Egyptian police, who responded with batons and water cannon.
Egyptian state news agency Mena said 22 Egyptian security
men were injured while trying to contain the crowd.
Injured troops
Egyptian
security sources at the border said seven security men were
injured, 6 by stones and one shot in the foot.
Adel Salman, an Egyptian government employee who lives near
the border, said he had seen truckloads of police leaving on
Friday evening.
One security source said Egyptian forces were
told to allow the border to remain open for three more days,
while others said no time limit had been set.
The Egyptian government faces a difficult balancing act.
It does not want to be seen as aiding the Israeli blockade,
but is under US and Israeli pressure to take control.
It also
fears the spread of Islamist influence and the effects of
hosting so many Palestinians without identity papers.
Peace talks
Israeli officials said Abbas planned to meet Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, seeking support for controlling
the crossings and for renewed peace talks despite the setbacks.
Citing the breach in Gaza's southern border, some top
Israeli officials have advocated cutting Israel's remaining
links with the coastal territory and putting the onus on Egypt.
Israel, which occupied Gaza in 1967, pulled its troops out
and settlers in 2005 but still controls the strip's northern and
eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters.
- Reuters
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