De Israelische Terreur 301

Palestinians cross back from Egypt into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip through the bombed metal fence, not seen, that used to separate the two sides of the border town, 24 January 2008. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

'Gaza scrambles for supplies as border forced open Rami Almeghari writing from Rafah, occupied Gaza Strip,
Live from Palestine,
25 January 2008

Three kids, their mother and their aunt hurried towards the Salah al-Din gate in southern Gaza on Wednesday.The mother, in her early thirties, explained in a rush, "We are heading to al-Arish [the Egypt border town] to follow my mom and brother who entered today after the borders were reopened."The family was not alone; thousands of other Palestinians thronged nearby, on their way to al-Arish, following the blasting through of the Israeli-built steel walls by Palestinian resistance fighters earlier that day. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai peninsula, breathing a collective sigh of relief following a half-year of Israeli closure of all Gaza border crossings.Those returning to Gaza carried everything from food to livestock. Other Gazans were carrying on their shoulders boxes of another precious commodity in besieged Gaza -- cigarettes -- the price of which has at least doubled over the past several months."We are bringing cigarettes because its cheaper in Egypt," said one such individual.The Rafah crossing terminal -- the main point of entry into Gaza from Egypt -- has been permanently closed since June 2007. On 19 September 2007 Israel declared Gaza an "enemy entity" and began imposing an additional series of collective punishment measures against the population, including sharp reductions of imports, ostensibly in reaction to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza. However, Israeli public figures have repeatedly stated that the intent of the siege is to put pressure on the civilian population and erode popular support of the elected Hamas government which took control of the Strip this summer.In a narrow muddy corridor near the fenced-off border, engineer and father of two Ramadan Said al-Na'ouq was heading towards the hole in the border wall in an attempt to get to Cairo to renew his Egyptian residency papers."I have been waiting for Israeli permission to travel to Cairo for the past three months; not only me, but 5,000 others are also waiting for the same," said al-Na'ouq. "What can I say, it's a golden opportunity for me to have my residence renewed. Otherwise, I will likely lose it in ten days. I only need a couple of days."'

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