Egyptian border guards with riot shields formed human chains on Friday in an apparent attempt to gradually reseal Egypt's breached border with Gaza, but thousands of Palestinians still managed to sneak through. The attempt to hinder the flow came after Egyptian officials rejected notions of Israel relinquishing responsibility for the impoverished Gaza Strip, which has been deprived of normal trade and commerce and faced blockades. The Egyptian guards were posted along the main border breach, where a crowd quickly grew into the thousands, frustrated at no longer being let in. Some threw stones at the Egyptians, but quickly stopped after being booed.| BBC video here. |
Egyptian Amira Ali, 39, carrying her toddler son and holding a 6-year-old son by the hand, said she wants to visit her mother-in-law in Gaza. ''Of course, I'm afraid (of being trapped in Gaza), but will try to go for a while so my mother-in-law can see the kids,'' she said. Travelers returning from Egypt said they heard loudspeaker announcements there that Gazans had to return home by 7 pm Friday.
The border was breached on Wednesday, when Palestinian militants blew down large sections of the wall. Since then, Egypt has allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to go back and forth from the crowded territory, home to some 1.5 million people. The opening of the border, even if temporary, provided a significant popularity boost to Gaza's Hamas rulers, who can claim they successfully broke through the internationally supported Israeli closure that has deprived the coastal strip of normal trade and commerce for nearly two years. Both Egypt and Israel restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza after Hamas won parliament elections in 2006, and further tightened the closure after Hamas seized control of the area by force last June.
The issue turned into a verbal spat between Egypt and Israel when Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Israel gradually wants to relinquish responsibility for Gaza, now that its border with Egypt was blown open. It was a position echoed by other Israeli officials, who said the border breach could pave the way for increasingly disconnecting from the territory.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking on Thursday to The Associated Press on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said he didn't want to ''go too far in my interpretation of this.''
Egypt angrily rejected the Israeli ideas and said it would not change border arrangements. ''The border will go back as normal,'' said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki. ''The current situation is only an exception and for temporary reasons.''