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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 1 killed, 6 injured in Gaza border closure protest |
| 2007-09-02 |
| A Palestinian was killed and six more were wounded on Saturday when Hamas paramilitaries opened fire to disperse protesters trying to dash across the border into Egypt, witnesses said. Ahmed Eqdeh, 16, died after being taken to hospital, while two others hit by bullets had light wounds, a medical source said and added that four more protestors had suffered fractures. Thousands of Hamas supporters had been protesting to urge the Egyptian authorities to reopen the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip at the border town of Rafah. In June, Egypt closed the border crossing for fear of a spillover in the fighting between the moderate Fatah faction and Hamas, which eventually gained control of the Gaza Strip. Egypt and Israel sealed a deal at the end of July allowing Palestinians to cross through Al-Oja, the border point for commercial traffic between Egypt and Israel. Since then, around 5,000 Palestinians have been able to return from Egypt through Israeli territory using the Erez checkpoint at the northern end of the Gaza Strip. However hundreds of Palestinians, most of them Hamas supporters, remain stranded on the Egyptian side as they fear being arrested if they travel through Israel, according to Hamas. |
| Posted by:Fred |