EGYPT: Palestinian ministers visit Palestinian refugees stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing

A delegation of Palestinian ministers visited Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in Egypt since the border crossing with Gaza was closed. A delegation of Palestinian ministers on Sunday (July 8) visited some of the thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in the Egyptian towns of al-Arish and Rafah since the border crossing to the Gaza Strip was closed one month ago. The three ministers from the Palestinian emergency government that was sworn in on June 17th were given an often hostile reception by angry refugees who have complained of neglect at the hands of their government and the Egyptian authorities. There are reports that a number of refugees have died due to lack of medical treatment and many have said they are short on food and have not received humanitarian assistance. An unknown number of refugees have also reportedly gone on hunger strike to protest their predicament at the al-Arish airport where many of them are stranded. While the Palestinian delegation visited the airport on Sunday, journalists were prevented by Egyptian security forces from filming the visit. The Rafah border crossing, which separates the Gaza strip from Egypt, was closed on June 9, in the aftermath of heavy Palestinian factional fighting that saw the Hamas movement seize control of the strip from the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. After Hamas's takeover of Gaza, President Abbas dissolved a Palestinian unity government that had included Hamas, which won democratic Palestinian elections in 2006. Today in al-Arish, the freshly appointed Palestinian Information Minister, Riyad al-Malki, told the put-upon refugees that his government was doing all it could to solve their plight. "We have come under instructions from President Abbas, and under the direction of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in order to come here to meet with you, to listen to you, and to see what we are able to do as a government in order to end this hardship quickly and in the present, and how we can increase the possibility of your returning to your country, to the Gaza strip, and in order for you to be reunited with your families immediately," he said. Despite al-Malki's reassurances, the reality is that the Palestinian government has little say in whether the Rafah crossing, which is under Israeli control, stays open or closed. Israel frequently closes the crossing, leaving Palestinian residents of Gaza in limbo on either side of the border. Al-Malki said his government considered the opening of the crossing to be a priority issue. "This is of fundamental importance - we consider the opening of the Rafah crossing to be an essential beginning step in order to secure our position, as Palestinians, in terms of sovereignty, statehood and independence. We will not back down on this point, on the need to open the Rafah crossing. But at the same time we are looking into all of the additional possibilities in order to relieve this severe situation, this daily human crisis, and in order to return you to Gaza as quickly as possible," he said. While there is much debate among Palestinians about the legality of President Abbas's dissolving of the unity government and dismissal of Hamas's Mahmoud Haniyeh as Prime Minister in favour of Salam Fayyad, who is liked by the Bush administration, in al-Arish on Sunday most of the waylaid refugees seemed contemptuous of both Hamas and Fatah. "We are tired of this situation. And if anyone wants to make political gains at the expense of these unfortunate people, then we pray that Abu Mazen and Haniyeh fail in their efforts, we pray that they fail if you leave us here at the crossing unable to go back to our country," said one man chosen to speak on behalf of the refugees. The United Nations (U.N.) agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has put the number of refugees stranded in the last month at around 2,500, though the Egyptian authorities dispute the figure. One woman in al-Arish said that all they were asking for was to go back home. "We came here and we now want to go home. We have no money and no food and nothing and we want to go home. And we are in pain and we came to find medical care and the border was closed, and we cannot go home, and we have no money and no food," she said. The refugees' frustration boiled over at times during the visit, with one man yelling -- "Just bring coffins, its better to send people home in coffins." After the stormy visit with the al-Arish refugees, the ministerial delegation then travelled to a nearby military base that is reportedly home to a different group of Palestinian refugees - members of Fatah's military forces who fled the fighting in Gaza when Hamas launched its successful offensive. Not all of the refugees stranded in Egypt have been lucky enough to find a roof over their heads. North of al-Arish, in the town of Rafah, many refugees have been forced to camp out near the border crossing, praying day by day as they sleep in the elements that the gates will magically part, and they will be allowed to return home. Just off of the main road leading to the crossing, a group of men has been brought together by the vagaries of politics, and forced to live beneath a flimsy tent open to the elements and the blazing Sinai summer heat. One man, who refused to give his name, said that he was on his way back from a pilgrimage to Mecca when the border slammed shut. For these men from Gaza, the long wait to go home has been wearying, with every day bringing broken promises from warring politicians who they have lost all faith in. Ultimate responsibility for their plight may lie with Israel, which refuses to relinquish the keys to Rafah, but their anger not lies with closer to home. Like so many Palestinian refugees before them across the last century, the Gaza residents stranded in Egypt for the last month live virtually within sight of their homes, but unable to return due to events far beyond their control.

ITN Source | July 9, 2007

Tags:. .unfortunate. .blazing. .nearby. .frustration. .frequently