Egyptian border guards clash with Palestinians at Rafah crossing
RAFAH CROSSING (Gaza Strip), Jan 22: Egyptian border guards clashed with hundreds of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza-Egypt border on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 Egyptians and 60 Palestinians hurt.
The clashes came at the end of a protest by thousands of Palestinian women who demanded an end to the blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
Hundreds of protesters rushed to the border terminal, and some even reached the Egyptian side of the border. Egyptian guards fired in the air and used water cannons to keep back the crowd.
Palestinian gunmen also fired in the air briefly.
Ten Egyptian guards were hurt, including some with critical injuries, an Egyptian security official said.
Sixty Palestinians were hurt, including a woman who suffered gunshot injuries.
More than two hours after the start of the protest, some Palestinians remained on the Egyptian side, and Hamas brought in dozens of policemen to try to clear the area.
The protesters were demanding the reopening of the Rafah terminal, a mainly pedestrian crossing shut most of the time since June.
BORDER SECURITY: Egyptian security sources said Hamas security men had entered the Egyptian side of the border with Egypt’s consent to restore order and to take several hundred Palestinians back into Gaza.
Egypt beefed up border security on Monday with about 300 police officers as Palestinians demanded Rafah be opened for hospital patients a day after much of Gaza was plunged into darkness. Israel had blocked fuel supplies and sealed Gaza’s border in what it said was a response to Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes.
Israel resumed fuel supplies to Gaza’s main power plant on Tuesday, offering limited respite. The shipment included at least three days’ worth of European Union-funded fuel.
Israel has said the Gaza privations were not reaching a crisis point and that its measures were a justified reaction to rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas and other groups.
Hamas opposes peace moves with Israel by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration condemned the closure as harmful to diplomacy.
The European Union and international agencies have denounced the closures as illegal “collective punishment” against Gaza’s 1.5 million residents, many of whom depend on outside aid.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to lift the blockade against Palestinians in the coastal strip. Mubarak telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Monday to warn of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.—Agencies
