Over a thousand Palestinian pilgrims trapped in Egypt boarded buses on Sunday taking them to temporary camps in the northern Sinai Peninsula until authorities decide where they will cross into the Gaza Strip, a security official said.
They want to cross into Gaza through Rafah, which is outside Israeli control. The Palestinians arrived in the Egyptian port city of Nuweiba in southern Sinai on Saturday after completing their pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia but have resisted Egypt's attempts to have them return to Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Aouja border crossing. Some of the pilgrims are members of the radical Islamic group Hamas, which seized Gaza in June, and they fear Israel will arrest them if they return through Aouja. |