RAFAH, Sept 17: Palestinian forces fired warning shots and pushed back stone-throwing crowds on Saturday on the southern Gaza Strip’s Egyptian border, attempting to reimpose order after a week of illegal crossings by thousands of people.
Some 1,500 soldiers and riot police warded off mobs along the 14-kilometre-long Rafah frontier, where anarchy has reigned since Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Cranes lifted cement blocks to seal holes in the giant border fence that had been knocked out by smugglers and armed factions.
Egyptian and Palestinian police were only permitting people to head back to their native soil and not allowing anyone else to pass, limiting the traffic to one section of the wall.
They checked identification cards and gave chase to anyone who tried to vault into Egypt.
Egyptian army trucks rode up and down the border to enforce the clampdown. The flow of smuggled goods brought in by the ton this week fell to a trickle as people hauled back only small quantities of items like cigarettes and petrol.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas vowed on Friday to bring the chaotic border situation under control.
Israeli and Palestinian officials have worried that the collapse of border controls might have allowed large quantities of weapons and illegal drugs to be smuggled into the territory.
As part of Israel’s pullout deal from Gaza, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt had agreed to police the Rafah border, which Israel had locked down over the five-year Palestinian uprising.
But militant groups have defied Mr Abbas, flouting his rule and exposing his government’s lack of power on the ground.
On Wednesday, people watched as militants from the Hamas detonated a section of Palestinian border fence, ignoring pleas from the Palestinian security forces.
The rioting spread to the northern West Bank as Palestinians pillaged the abandoned settlement of Homesh, which Israel evacuated last month along with three other communities around Jenin.
SUMMIT PLANNED: With an eye to reviving the peace process, the offices of Mr Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed the two men were to hold a summit on Oct 1 or 2.—AFP
