Thousands of Palestinians stuck at border

Sat Jul 1, 10:55 AM ET

RAFAH, Egypt - Thousands of Palestinians are stuck in two Egyptian towns by the Gaza border, unable to return home amid an Israeli assault on the coastal strip, an Egyptian security official said Saturday.

Brigadier Khairi Awwad, head of the Rafah city council, said more than 4,000 Palestinians were in staying in Rafah, on the border with Gaza, and El Arish, a town about 30 miles to the west.

Many of them are Palestinians who work in Persian Gulf countries and travel home through Egypt to Gaza for summer vacation, he said.

Mohammed Awadallah, a 56-year-old high school teacher, was traveling from Saudi Arabia with his wife and seven children to spend the summer with relatives in Gaza.

"I will go back to collect my stuff if they let us pass, and then go back to Saudi Arabia and will never go home again," he said.

The Gaza-Egypt border was open only sporadically over week since Hamas-linked militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier and Israel launched a military assault on Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians took refuge inside the border terminal or spent several nights sleeping on the asphalt on the Egyptian side of the border.

Many were stuck in no man's land between Egypt and Gaza, having had their travel documents stamped exiting Egypt, but unable to enter the Palestinian territory.

A large tent was erected outside the terminal to provide women and children shelter from the sweltering desert sun. Egyptian officials handed out food to refugees who had been there for days.

With no money for a hotel, Harbah Salem and her husband spread a blanket over the hot concrete for their four handicapped children, all blind from a birth defect.

"Me and my kids are suffering from bug bites, the hot sun during the day and the cold wind blowing during the night," she said.

Many hotels in El Arish were full, and Palestinians were seen in the town's public squares and restaurants, hauling their possessions on their backs.

Israeli F-16 fighter jets screeched across the sky over Rafah and helicopters hovered overhead.

Egypt deployed 2,500 troops to Rafah, backed by armored vehicles, said Ahmed el-Masri, chief of police in Rafah.

"We are still on security alert," he said, though a curfew in Rafah had been lifted.

He said Egyptian authorities had conducted raids along the border area, to ensure that the Israeli captive had not been smuggled to Egypt.

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