RAFAH, July 14: Palestinian guerillas blew a six-metre hole in the Gaza-Egypt border wall on Friday, allowing nearly 1,000 Gazans stranded by the closed border to cross home, officials and witnesses said.
Palestinians, carrying their luggage and young children, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they passed into Gaza.
Some had been trapped on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing since June 25, when Palestinian militants seized an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid.
Six stranded Palestinians, including an infant, had died waiting on the closed border.
“How do I feel? I feel happy, very happy,” said Naeem Ashehri, sitting on one of his bags on the Gaza side of the border after being stranded at the crossing for 22 days. “We had almost lost faith.”
Another man exclaimed: “We are free. We are back home.”
Western diplomats said Israel prevented Rafah from opening by keeping European monitors from getting to the terminal, citing security concerns. Israel blamed the Palestinians.
Palestinians technically control the crossing but its operations can be blocked by the Israelis.
Israel responded to the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit by launching a major ground and air offensive that has killed more than 80 Palestinians, most of them militants.
On Friday, Israel bombed the offices of Hamas lawmakers, destroyed a bridge and fired a tank shell that killed one Palestinian. Israeli forces also withdrew overnight from central Gaza after two days of fighting, but an army spokeswoman said: “We don’t rule out the possibility of going back in.
The Egyptian director of the Rafah crossing, General Hossam Abul Wafa, said the gunmen took 950 people over into Gaza — all of those who had been waiting on the Egyptian side.
Israeli helicopters briefly opened fire near the crowd as they poured into Gaza. The army said the intention was to prevent them from crossing the border wall. Egyptian forces fired a water cannon to try to move people back.
About 70 masked men from the Hamas group took part in the operation, in which explosives were detonated at the base of the barrier.—Reuters
