World - Reuters
Stranded Gazans Go Home as Israel Opens Egypt Border
Date: Fri, Aug 06, 2004
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
RAFAH CROSSING, Egypt (Reuters) - Israel's army reopened the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) Friday, allowing 1,500 Palestinians to head home after being stranded on the Egyptian side for three weeks.
Small children and elderly people were among travelers languishing in desert heat and unsanitary conditions in the Rafah terminal. Washington, Israel's close ally, had expressed concern about the Palestinians' plight.
Busloads of exhausted travelers entered Gaza and were expected to be followed by a further 2,000 Palestinians waiting at hotels in Egypt's northern Sinai region, officials said.
"I hope this international passage will remain open and that Israel will not repeat such inhumane measures that created this miserable situation," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel shut the crossing on July 18, saying intelligence indicated militants wanted to blow it up from a tunnel to be burrowed underneath. The closure was one of many such clampdowns imposed during a Palestinian uprising that began nearly four years ago.
The crossing is in a dusty area, blazing hot in summer, where Israeli forces regularly play a bloody cat-and-mouse game with militants who dig tunnels to smuggle munitions into Gaza.
In the latest violence, Israeli soldiers killed a militant and a civilian in two separate incidents in southern Gaza.
Military sources said troops shot dead a man who tried to infiltrate a settlement while carrying an explosive device and later in the day killed another unarmed Palestinian after he refused calls to halt as he approached the Israeli border.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian gunman during an arrest operation in the town of Salfit, an army spokeswoman said. A Palestinian security source said the man was a Hamas militant.
REARMING PALESTINIAN POLICE
Israel's reopening of the crossing was one of a series of new steps that could ease regional tensions, including its decision Thursday to let some Palestinian police bear arms in the West Bank for the first time in three years.
Israel had banned the police from carrying weapons in 2001, charging they were involved in violence during the uprising.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he had now agreed to let some police carry handguns to help end unprecedented unrest and lawlessness in Palestinian territories.
Defending himself against far-right accusations he was endangering Israeli lives, Mofaz reaffirmed guns would be given only to police whom Israeli security agencies had cleared of involvement in attacks on Israelis -- a restriction likely to infuriate Palestinians.
He also insisted any rearming would be carried out gradually and would be "reversible" if necessary.
Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled its borders since then. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) plans to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2005 but keep the poor, overcrowded territory encircled afterward.
The Palestinian leadership is under intense international pressure to clean up corruption and reform its security apparatus, which it accuses Israel of destroying during the conflict.
(Additional reporting by Cynthia Johnston and Shahdi el-Kashif in Gaza, Corinne Heller in Jerusalem, Jonathan Wright in Ismailia, Egypt and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)
SOURCE
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