GAZA: Estimated 100,000 Palestinians mass on Gaza's border, demanding that Egypt, Israel, and EU re-open Gaza's main gateway to the world

Tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday (September 1) against the closure of a border crossing with Egypt, as local security forces struggled to keep the protest under control. A teenage protester was critically wounded from shots fired by Hamas Executive Force officers trying to keep the protest under control amid tensions at the Rafah border crossing which connects the Gaza Strip with Egypt, security officials said. The Rafah terminal, Gaza's main gateway to the world, has remained closed since Hamas Islamists took control over the Gaza Strip in a week-long civil war against previously-dominant Fatah forces in June. Rafah was technically controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces and monitored by European Union observers before Hamas's takeover, although Israel frequently shut it down citing security reasons. The other side of the crossing is controlled by Egypt. Egyptian authorities ordered that the gates remain closed. European Union monitors who supervised the operation of the terminal left Gaza after the June violence broke out. Israel refused to allow the opening of the crossing for fear that Hamas may use it to transfer money and arms into Gaza. Some protesters tried to break through the border fence into Egypt but desisted when Hamas security men fired in the air to disperse the crowds. The closure of the border crossing has prevented thousands of Palestinians who fled the violence-torn strip to return from Egypt into Gaza. It has also prevented Palestinians from crossing over to Egypt through Rafah. Last month, several thousand Palestinians who were stranded in Egypt for weeks were allowed to return to the Gaza Strip through Israeli crossing points which forced the returnees to travel via Israel. Hamas rejected a deal between Israel, Abbas and Egypt to open those crossings instead of Rafah, saying it set a dangerous precedent by reducing pressure on the Jewish state to reopen Rafah any time soon.

ITN Source | September 2, 2007

Tags:. .crossings. .critically. .soon. .remained. .connects