Egyptian troops start to close the Rafah borders

Tuesday January 29, 2008 16:03 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Palestinian sources in Gaza conferment that the Egyptian troops started to close the borders between Egypt and the southern coastal city of Rafah on Tuesday.

Rafah crossing - 2008

Earlier on Tuesday morning Cairo announced that its troops will complete on Tuesday evening the closing of the breach that Palestinians made at the Rafah-Egypt borders.

Last week Palestinian civilians and resistance groups opened around a dozen holes in the Rafah –Egypt border wall, after two weeks of Israeli siege that left the 1.5 million Gaza resident lacking food, water, and medicine and fuel supplies. Most of the holes are now closed; witnesses told media agencies, while Egyptian sources said that there are two holes in the border wall that are left open.
Palestinian shopping numbers crossing into Egypt declined in the past three days, after the border Egyptian city of Al Arish had ran out of supplies.

The Egyptian troops refused to allow shop owners in Al Arish to restock their shops since then, effectively lowering the number of Gazans coming into the city for shopping.

Meanwhile more than 1,500 Palestinians stranded in the city of Al-Arish, lacking basic necessities and undergoing hard weather, announced that they will begin a hunger strike on Wednesday if Egypt does not allow them to leave its territories to other countries where they have study or business.

Among those 1,500 Palestinians there are patents with chronic illnesses, students who study abroad, Palestinians who work in different Arab and foreign countries. They have protesting in front of the Egyptian interior ministry's offices in the Sinai district for the past six days demanding the Eygpt allow them access to its airport so they can fly out.

The Egyptian troops allowed Gazans to enter the city of Al-Arish city only for the past week, but stopped anyone from entering the rest of the Egyptian territory.

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