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Palestinians flooding into Egypt on Wednesday over a section of the border wall blasted away by militants in southern Gaza overnight. (AP)
Last update - 00:07 24/01/2008
Gazans rush to buy food, fuel made scarce by Israeli blockade
Hamas takes control at frontier as 200,000 Gazans enter Egypt
By Barak Ravid, Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies
Tags: Hosni Mubarak, Ehud Barak 

Some 200,000 Palestinians poured out of Gaza and into Egypt early Wednesday, after masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the border.

The Gazans rushed to purchase food, fuel, and other supplies made scarce by Israel's blockade of the Strip, after militants detonated 17 bombs in the early morning hours, destroying some two-thirds of the metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Hamas did not take responsibility for knocking the border wall down, but Hamas militants quickly took control of the frontier, as Egyptian border guards took no action.
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Israel said in response to the chaos that it expects Egypt to solve the crisis.

The destruction of the border continued later Wednesday morning. Palestinians driving a Caterpillar bulldozer arrived at a point where the frontier is marked by a low concrete wall topped with barbed wire, tearing down the wall and opening a gap to allow easier access for cars.

Earlier Wednesday, the United Nations estimated the number of Gazans who had crossed into Egypt at 350,000.

Palestinians have breached the Egypt-Gaza border several times since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. In the past, Egyptian security forces restored order after hours or days.

Hamas police channeled the crowds through two sections of the border, and inspected some bags, confiscating seven pistols carried by one man returning to Gaza.

Others walked unhindered over the toppled metal plates that once made up the border wall, carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coke. Some brought back televisions and car tires, and one man bought a motorcycle. Vendors sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds.

Mohammed Abu Ghazel, 29, said he had crossed the border three times since the morning. He bought cigarettes worth NIS 200 in Egypt and sold them for five times that in Gaza, he said. "This can feed my family for a month," he said.

On Monday, some 60 people were injured at a demonstration at the Rafah crossing as the crowd tried to break through the border gate, and Egyptian border guards used water cannons against them.

Israel imposed a full closure on the Gaza Strip last Thursday in response to massive barrages of Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak allowed limited transfers of fuel Tuesday for the power plant in the Strip and medical supplies for hospitals.

Security sources told Haaretz on Tuesday that Israel intends to keep the crossings into the Gaza Strip permanently closed except when it is necessary to provide for emergency humanitarian needs.

This new policy will allow the transfer of sufficient aid and materials to the Palestinians to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and minimize international criticism, "but so long as the rocket attacks continue there will not be a situation in which one hundred trucks a day cross into the Strip," a security source said.

From Damascus, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal declared that the attacks would continue until Israel "ended the occupation and the aggression, the resistance, including rocket attacks, would not cease."

At least 20 rockets were fired against Israel on Tuesday, in addition to a handful of mortars.

This comes in stark contradiction to claims by Israeli security sources Monday evening that the drop in the number of rocket attacks reflected "an understanding by Hamas of the message sent by the blockade."


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      1.   Crossings mst be kept closed - enemy entity 03:01  |  Free Gilad Shalit 23/01/08
      2.   Machismo BS! 03:11  |  Haaretz Loyalist 23/01/08
      3.   Why would Hamas stop rocket attacks? 03:16  |  Jon 23/01/08
      4.   The international community is watching and watching very closely 03:45  |  lakshmi 23/01/08
      5.   What about the 60-70 Pals wounded by Egyptian police 03:55  |  POP 23/01/08
      6.   A Lesson for all Israelis 04:05  |  Fred McCann 23/01/08
      7.   beyond belief 04:07  |  solitarioh2005 23/01/08
      8.   Sweets for the not so sweet 04:13  |  Aphemia 23/01/08
      9.   History lessons and the fate of Gaza Arabs (and other Arabs) 04:22  |  Genuine Tosefta 23/01/08
      10.   Good thing Egypt allowed explosives to be smuggled into Gaza 04:32  |  Gina 23/01/08
      11.   #2 Odd definition of "safe and secure" 04:41  |  Johnboy 23/01/08
      12.   crossings 04:43  |  Shmuelshachor 23/01/08
      13.   NO SURPRISE NEWs 06:12  |  human 23/01/08
      14.   crossings 06:32  |  colin 23/01/08
      15.   Okay, now I really feel sorry for them.There "own"could care less 06:54  |  When will these poor 23/01/08
      16.   #4 Fred 06:59  |  Sheikh Rattle & Roll 23/01/08
      17.   CLOSE IT 07:02  |  real vision 23/01/08
      18.   20 kassams are not too much, don`t cause harm 07:21  |  Yaakov Sullivan 23/01/08
      19.   solitarioh2005 07:24  |  GZLives 23/01/08
      20.   Gazans Wanna Go to Cairo , Gazans refuse to be held hostages 07:28  |  Joseph E . 23/01/08
      21.   Israeli`s there is a lesson to be learned here 07:29  |  Shepherd 23/01/08
      22.   Israeli Learning Curve 07:31  |  Ron 23/01/08
      23.   What is Israels real agenda? 07:34  |  Natallie Durson 23/01/08
      24.   just moment with truth 08:06  |  dani 23/01/08
      25.   no more aid through israeli crossing 08:20  |  vik 23/01/08
      26.   RETAKE PHILIDELPHIA CORRIDOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 08:30  |  Ben Uziel 23/01/08
      27.   Germany should absorb 6 million Palestinians !!! 08:34  |  German citizen 23/01/08
      28.   mabee, but just mabee.... 08:41  |  watcher 23/01/08
      29.   Question 08:44  |  Inquisitive 23/01/08
      30.   Cigarettes?! 08:46  |  Oddvark 23/01/08
      31.   Limited reprisals cannot work 08:48  |  Natallie Durson 23/01/08
      32.   Israel has become a terrorist operating state 09:01  |  Dutch 23/01/08
      33.   #5 - of course Israeli politicians anticipated the reaction 09:06  |  redmike 23/01/08
      34.   Arabs hold arabs as hostages for anti Zionism purposes 09:11  |  Joseph E . 23/01/08
      35.   SEND THEM ALL TO SINAI 09:15  |  Yishai Kohen 23/01/08
      36.   to # F McCann of Waco Tx "the Semite" 09:16  |  Steve the Pals. 23/01/08
      37.   Egypt Rather force Gazans to be Martyrs than to cross to Cairo 09:24  |  Joseph E . 23/01/08
      38.   Simply.. Israel has legal obligation as an occupier to Gaza. 09:27  |  John 23/01/08
      39.   to # 16 the German citizen 09:30  |  Steve the Pals. 23/01/08
      40.   If one border is closed, the other must open 09:31  |  Clickfool 23/01/08
      41.   Was this anticipated? 09:33  |  Esther 23/01/08
      42.   #18 question 09:40  |  YURI 23/01/08
      43.   Lies 09:46  |  YURI 23/01/08
      44.   What now? 09:50  |  Maureen Ann 23/01/08
      45.   Can this happen on the israeli side of the border? 09:52  |  Ali 23/01/08
      46.   #38 no such obligation exists john read it carefully 09:52  |  v hardman 23/01/08
      47.   desparation at its highest 09:53  |  Leona 23/01/08
      48.   Natallie Durson - what is the Hamas agenda 09:53  |  Joe Sittizen 23/01/08
      49.   #41 09:53  |  YURI 23/01/08
      50.   27 - yes Germany should absorb the Jews, and let Pales B free 09:54  |  Jeremy Martin 23/01/08
      51.   #34 09:57  |  noffo 23/01/08
      52.   Eurabia strikes again!!!! 10:02  |  Seth 23/01/08
      53.   Joe Sittizen What is Hamas agenda? 10:06  |  Natallie Durson 23/01/08
      54.   #39 Steve the Pals. Not the German but the Zionist 10:12  |  Dav 23/01/08
      55.   EGYPTIANS LEARNING A LESSON FROM 10:18  |  Robert 23/01/08
      56.   No illigal occupation 10:19  |  Dav 23/01/08
      57.   To Clickfool 10:26  |  Gershon Reed 23/01/08
      58.   let them (force them) to pour into Egypt 10:29  |  mike 23/01/08
      59.   Maybe it is now time for Egypt to be Gaza`s guardian 10:29  |  Jo 23/01/08
      60.   #46 VictorPaul is another of those.... 10:31  |  Johnboy 23/01/08
      61.   hey egypt: you gonna do something now? 10:31  |  matt 23/01/08
      62.   Thank G-d. 10:32  |  sandra chitayat 23/01/08
      63.   Great Plan ! grant all Pals Visa to Germany ! 10:33  |  to German Citizen 23/01/08
      64.   Esther #41 10:34  |  S 23/01/08
      65.   Hamas given the chance will invade Egypt 10:34  |  De 23/01/08
      66.   "Egyptian guards did shoot at the demonstrators"` 60 injured" 10:36  |  PETER SM 23/01/08
      67.   the "hearts and minds" of the international community. 10:41  |  Yonatan 23/01/08
      68.   Jeremy Martin...will you take the Germans then? 10:43  |  Ofer Maimon 23/01/08
      69.   Uou`re being deliberately dense, Gershon Reed # 57 10:44  |  Clickfool 23/01/08
      70.   Steve is a israeli jew - actually an ex religious turned leftist