Egyptian and Hamas forces closed the Gaza border on Sunday after reportedly agreeing to control the frontier blown open by Hamas 11 days ago in a bid to break a crippling Israeli blockade.
Metal barriers and rolls of barbed wire were erected across all gaps in the border at the divided town of Rafah, again sealing off Gaza after nearly half the impoverished territory’s 1.5 million population flooded into Egypt. “No more Palestinians are being allowed in,” an Egyptian security source told AFP. One gate remained open to allow Palestinians and Egyptians to return home, but otherwise no pedestrians or vehicles were being allowed to cross, AFP correspondents witnessed.
Dozens of armed and helmeted Hamas men wielded batons at crowds gathered at the border, hoping that the resealed breaches will open just one more time. “Everyone needs to leave immediately! If you’re not Egyptian, you’ve got to leave now!” the Hamas men yelled in a bid to relieve the crowds near the barrier. On the Egyptian side of Rafah, security forces briefly detained an AFP reporter and photographer, erasing the photographer’s memory cards and saying journalists were no longer allowed to take pictures of the border.
The Egyptian side was almost entirely deserted, with cars banned around the frontier and in RafahÂ’s town centre unless they were headed home, an AFP correspondent said. People continued to go home from both sides of the border, with a queue of horse- and donkey-drawn carts laden with household goods waiting to cross into Gaza at Brazil Gate. The border breakout on January 23 launched a sprawl of chaos and commerce, with hundreds of thousands of people streaming across in both directions with crates of goods, herds of animals, and plastic jugs of diesel fuel or simply to visit relatives.
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