AP Features, July 19th, 2007
About 2,000 people protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians trapped in Egypt to return.
The Rafah border terminal, the only gateway for Palestinian travelers to the world, has been closed since June 9, the start of bloody factional fighting between Palestinians in which Hamas routed rival Fatah forces and took control of Gaza.
Since the Hamas takeover, Egypt, Israel and a European Union team that monitored the crossing have kept it closed. Health conditions have become a concern because many Palestinians stranded in Egypt went there for medical treatment.
"This crossing must be opened," said Salah Hassanen of Islamic Jihad, one of the groups organizing the protest. "It's a Palestinian crossing. Our people, our relatives are dying on the other side."
Waving flags and banners reading "Open the crossing" and "Rafah is our only gateway," the protesters requested the crossing be opened and complained of health problems among relatives stuck on the other side.
Later Thursday, Egyptian authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on their side of the divided town of Rafah following rumors that Palestinian gunmen planned to blow a hole in the border wall.
Thousands of police and security forces were deployed around the town, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. On July 10, Palestinian gunmen inside the Gaza Strip twice tried to breach the wall with explosives, without success.
About 6,000 Palestinians are waiting on the Egyptian side of the crossing, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information. Most are staying with relatives, in mosques, at an airport or in rented houses. Some 30,000 others are waiting elsewhere in Egypt, the ministry said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 25 Palestinians who left Gaza for medical treatment have died in Egypt while waiting to return. Their bodies were returned to Gaza through coordination with Israel.
Brain cancer patient Wafa al-Gaal, 41, died Thursday on the Egyptian side. Her body was transferred to her family though Kerem Shalom, an Israeli-controlled border crossing.
Fatima Olwan said her daughter Sana, 29, went to Egypt for eye surgery and is now stuck on the other side with three children.
"She's running out of money," Olwan said. "Her children are sick from the hot weather and I'm afraid that she's going to have side effects from the laser surgery."
Israel has proposed rerouting the stranded Palestinians through Kerem Shalom, near the meeting point of Gaza, Egypt and Israel. Egypt has supported the idea, but Hamas has rejected it, saying travelers must be allowed to return through Rafah, which is not controlled by Israel.
The Palestinians took control of Rafah under a U.S.-brokered agreement worked out after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
