More Gazans Cross into Egypt

Source: Alalam.ir, 26-1-2008
RAFAH--Egyptian security forces have withdrawn from an area of the country's border with Gaza after efforts to seal it were rebuffed.
Security forces greatly reduced their presence along the Rafah border late Friday after Palestinians defied their attempts to seal the gaps by bulldozing a new opening.
Thousands of Palestinians crossed unhindered from Gaza as the Egyptians pulled back, rushing to stock up on food and fuel and shop for other goods which are in short supply because of the "Israeli" occupying regime's blockade of the strip.
Adel Salman, an Egyptian government employee who lives near the border point said he had seen truckloads of police leaving.
An Egyptian security source said the forces pulled back from crossing points after a security man was shot and wounded.
The fall of the Rafah wall has also punched a new hole in a US-backed campaign to strengthen Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.
However, the Egyptian government faces a difficult balancing act.
It does not want to be seen as aiding the "Israeli" blockade, but is under US and "Israeli" pressure to take control. It also fears the effects of becoming home to so many undocumented Palestinians.
On Friday, Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire and chain-link fences to stop more people crossing. But the Palestinians used a bulldozer to flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence.
Tensions flared at one point when Palestinians threw stones at Egyptian police, who responded with batons and water cannon.
The Egyptian state news agency MENA said 22 Egyptian security men were injured while trying to contain the crowd.
Egyptian security sources at the border said seven security men were injured, 6 by stones and one shot in the foot.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an interview to be published on Saturday, urged Hamas and Abbas's Fatah to end their differences and invited both sides to meet.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Damascus, accepted the invitation.
"I and all the brothers in the Hamas leadership welcome participating and will seek to make the dialogue a success," he said.
But a Fatah lawmaker in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Abbas holds sway, said talks would be a waste of time as long as Hamas continued to control Gaza.
"There is a Palestinian consensus that Hamas should give up its control of Gaza and fall into line with President Abbas, without this the talks would be a waste of time," lawmaker Abdallah Abdallah said.
Abbas has sought US and "Israeli" support to take control of all of the border crossings, a move Hamas hopes to prevent.
"Israeli" officials said Abbas planned to meet the occupying regime's prime minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, seeking support for controlling the crossings and for renewed talks despite the setbacks.
Citing the breach in Gaza's southern border, some top "Israeli" officials have advocated cutting "Israel's" remaining links with the coastal territory and putting the onus on Egypt.
Hamas sources said the group decided to open a new section in the border fence to increase pressure on Egypt.
"Israel", which occupied Gaza in 1967, pulled out its troops and settlers in 2005 but still controls the strip's northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters.