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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Egypt deploys hundreds of policemen on Gaza border |
| 2008-06-07 |
| Egypt deployed hundreds of riot police along the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday, fearing hundreds of Palestinian protestors may try to storm the Rafah crossing, security officials said. One official said 500 policemen as well as scores of border guards were deployed at Rafah border crossing and along a concrete wall separating Sinai and the coastal strip. "Hundreds of Palestinians are starting to gather in front of the main gate of the crossing on the Palestinian side demanding it to be opened," the official told Reuters on a customary condition of anonymity. Another security official put the number of policemen at around 1,000, along with 500 border guards. The Rafah crossing is the Gazans' main point of contact with the outside world because few of them are allowed through the passenger terminal at the Erez crossing with Israel. All of Gaza's crossings have largely been shut since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the coastal strip last June when its fighters routed the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I've loved that story ever since I came across it shortly after I learnt to read, George. An important lesson on assumptions running headlong into reality. :-) Go Israel! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-07 18:55 |
| #1 Here to think that 41 years ago one of the small solutions proposed by the IDF was the occupation of Gaza and holding them semi-hostage. Evidently someone on the IDF General Staff had read the Ransom of Red Chief. So the Joooooooooooos went from the passes. |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-06-07 18:22 |