As Egypt seals the borders, Palestinians opens it again to get supplies

Saturday January 26, 2008 12:41 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Ageinces

On Friday late a night the Palestinian resistance and civilians living in Gaza breached a section of the iron wall surrounding the Gaza Strip after Egyptian troops closed a previous breach in the wall on Friday afternoon.

Rafah borders - File 2007

Last Wednesday at dawn the Palestinian resistance destroyed part of the wall at the southern part of the strip at the borders with Egypt using five home made bombs, shortly afterwards thousands of Palestinians rushed through to buy food and fuel supplies from Egypt to bring back to the isolated Gaza Strip.

For the days followed the Egyptian government allowed Palestinian to continue shopping in Egypt and come back to the Coastal Region.

The United Stats of America and Israeli slammed Egypt for the move and said that the Palestinian resistance will enter Gaza from Egypt.

Israeli threatened to step-up attacks on the coastal region and stop water from coming into Gaza. The Egyptian president said to reporters on Thursday that he will allow the Palestinian to get their supplies from Egypt as long as there is a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Two weeks ago the Israeli government decided to keep pressure on the Gaza Strip by further attacking Palestinian resistance groups. On Friday Israel declared all Gaza's crossings completely closed, with a total ban of fuel and supplies to the coastal region. By Sunday Gaza had no electricity as the Solo Gaza power plant depends on Israeli Fuel.

On Friday afternoon the Egyptian government announced it would close the crossing. Shortly after Egyptian troops sealed the borders and attacked the Palestinians civilians their using rite shields batons and water cannon, 22 Palestinians were injured, Palestinian sources reported, Egyptian Media said that 6 policemen were hurt when angry civilians responded by throwing stones at the Egyptian troops.

Later in the Evening Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians smashed a new hole in the Rafah Egypt border Wall using a bulldozer, Egyptian troops polled back and allowed Palestinian to inter Egypt again.

The Egyptian government decided to reseal the borders rafter it had been heavily criticized by Western powers. The US congress suspended on Friday $100 million of aid to Egypt for allowing the Palestinians to get into Egypt to get food to survive.

gaza strip | human rights | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org