Gaza-Egypt border to stay open

Egyptian border guards began trying to control the masses of Palestinians flooding from the Gaza Strip today but were not attempting to reseal the breached border.

Helmeted riot officers with dogs used batons to beat the bonnets of Egyptian cars and trucks offering rides to Palestinians seeking goods in towns out of walking range.

Dozens of Egyptian guards pushed their way through the crowds but did nothing to halt the thousands of Palestinians moving over the wreckage of a metal wall brought down by explosives a day earlier.

“We are trying to organise the flow, incoming and exiting, of all these people,” one said.

US and Arab officials said yesterday that Egypt had assured the United States it would soon reseal its border with the Gaza Strip.

The crush of people at the border appeared to increase at midday, with Gazans saying they feared the Egyptian authorities would soon close the crossing.

“Everyone is rushing into Egypt before they seal it off,” said Mohammed Abu Amra, a Palestinian man walking with crutches, who slipped and fell as he crossed the border.

“I fell because everyone is pushing, everyone is rushing,” he said.

“The Egyptians started doing good deeds by letting us in. For God’s sake, why don’t they keep allowing us to pass through?”

Israel, meanwhile, said it would not send emergency shipments of fuel today, as it had initially promised earlier in the week. The fuel is needed to run Gaza City’s power plant, which had shut down after Israel imposed a complete closure on Gaza last week, in response to rocket attacks.

The Palestinian Energy Authority said the Gaza plant would have to shut down again by Sunday, unless shipments are renewed.

An Israeli defense official said the border breach “reduces pressure on us a little” to provide the basics in Gaza. When Israel initially imposed a complete blockade last week, tacitly backed by Egypt, international aid groups voiced concern about an impending humanitarian crisis.

Israel is still trying to get clarification from Egypt on if and when it plans to close the border, said the official.

In central Rafah the shopping continued for a second day. Palestinians were buying cows, camels and horses and leading them back through the passage into Gaza. Men loaded with electronics equipment struggled to step through the broken opening.

Egyptian police were also deployed on main shopping thoroughfares and in alleyways in Rafah, but they did not attempt to force Palestinians to leave the city.

The border breach has been a boon to Hamas, the militant group whose hold on Gaza was made more difficult by border closures. The closures, which were tightened after Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June, have led to severe shortages of cement, cigarette and other basic goods.

The Islamic militant Hamas group which controls Gaza has used the border breach, which was carefully planned, to push its demand for reopening the border passages, in effect ending the international sanctions against them.

It appears unlikely Egypt will agree. President Hosni Mubarak has been under intense public pressure at home in recent days to alleviate the suffering of Gazans under blockade. However, Egypt would be reluctant to have an open border with a territory ruled by Islamic militants.

Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, has expressed concern that militants and weapons might be entering Gaza to bolster rocket launchings toward Israel, and said responsibility for restoring order lies with Egypt.