GAZA: Palestinians call for re-opening of Rafah crossing

A protest by Palestinians in Gaza, which is virtually closed off from the rest of the world, is held near Rafah to demand that the Rafah crossing with Egypt should be re-opened In southern Gaza, Palestinians congregated on Wednesday (July 25) behind the closed gates of the Rafah border crossing, the main gateway between Gaza and Egypt, in a protest calling for the reopening of the border. Several thousand Palestinians have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the border for over a month, since European monitors left the strip after deadly fighting between Hamas and Fatah. A UN report said there are some 6,000 Palestinians waiting in Egypt to cross back into Gaza and Egyptian authorities have prevented them from approaching the border in Rafah. The protesters demanded that complete control of the border crossing be handed over to the Palestinians, and that people should be allowed to travel back into Gaza. "We called on the President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak to end this suffering and this humanitarian tragedy. Egypt should take it's historical responsibility before God and before of the Palestinian people. We confirm that that the President of the Palestinian Authority has also requested an end to this crisis, this humanitarian catastrophe," the deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Ahmed Bahar, told reporters. The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt enables the movement of people and transfer of merchandise but has frequently been closed by Israel, which says it also serves as a major transit point for militants and weapons. It has been closed since June 9, when European Union monitors left after fierce fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the secular Fatah faction, disbanded a Hamas-led government and formed an emergency administration after the Islamist group seized the Gaza Strip by force on June Since then, he has ruled by emergency decree. Responding to constitutional limits on the state of emergency, Abbas swore-in three new ministers and reappointed Salam Fayyad as prime minister after he formally stepped down.

ITN Source | July 26, 2007

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