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| Israel-Palestine |
| Egypt border crossing opened after 3 weeks |
| 2004-08-07 |
| We bombed the Israelis repeatedly and they still wouldn't open the border! Saturday, August 7, 2004 Greg Myre NYT JERUSALEM Israel opened a border crossing Friday between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that had been closed for nearly three weeks, allowing most of more than 2,000 stranded Palestinians to return home. Israel closed the Rafah crossing on July 18, saying it believed Palestinians were planning to attack the site. Since then, Palestinians who were in Egypt had been unable to return to Gaza. The better-off Palestinians were able to turn back and wait out the delay at hotels in Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt. But many of the travelers are poor and spent the entire time at a cramped, sweltering terminal building on the Egyptian side of the border. Many had to sleep outside, and the terminal had only limited toilet and washing facilities. A large number of the Palestinians had gone to Egypt for medical treatment, and some were still ailing as they tried to return home. Khalil Abu Foul, a doctor with the Palestinian Red Crescent, was given special permission to cross from Gaza to the Egyptian side and he treated the stranded Palestinians for the past two weeks. One woman gave birth, two had miscarriages and many suffered from illnesses related to diarrhea and high blood pressure, said Foul, who was among those returning to Gaza on Friday. "For the first three days I was treated like a stray dog. After that the Egyptians provided us with food, medicine and blankets," said Waffiah al-Sharif, 57, who was returning to her home in Gaza after visiting relatives in New Zealand. Abu Muhammad al-Salahiat, 40, said that his father and aunt, both elderly and ailing, had gone to Egypt for treatment, and both died in Cairo during the past two weeks. Friday, he was still waiting for the bodies to be returned. "They are both dead. Why won't they let the bodies cross?" he said. Egypt had called on Israel to reopen the border for humanitarian reasons, and the United States raised the issue. Israel offered to allow a limited number of Palestinians to pass through a separate crossing along the Israeli-Egyptian border. But Palestinian officials rejected the proposal, saying it was a violation of the existing agreement on the border crossing. In addition, the Israeli proposal would have permitted just 200 Palestinians to return home each day. Palestinian authorities also expressed concerns that Israel might be planning to close the Rafah crossing permanently. Palestinian officials said that about 1,500 travelers had returned to Gaza as of Friday evening and the rest were expected soon. On the Gaza side of the border, Palestinians who had been unable to go to Egypt simply remained at home, and there was no backlog of stranded travelers at the crossing point. In a separate development, Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said that some Palestinian policemen in the West Bank would be allowed to carry their weapons in public for the first time in more than two years. The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, recently raised the issue, saying the Palestinian Authority could not combat the growing chaos on the streets without an armed police force. Mofaz told Israel radio that he was also concerned about "a situation of anarchy that could spread and create chaos on the Palestinian side." The defense minister said that the Palestinian police would be allowed to carry only pistols and clubs, and that officers would have to be approved individually by Israel. The policy will be implemented gradually and is reversible, Mofaz said. Which all goes to show the questionable intelligence of constantly antagonizing those who are the gatekeepers of your borders and employers of your people. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #1 Fighting terrorism is a great inconvenience to so many people - especially those who are killed. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-07 2:23:16 AM |