Palestinian militants from Hamas' armed wing blew up fence walls
at the borders between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt on
Wednesday morning, which allowed thousands of Gazans to flock into
the Egyptian side, witnesses and security sources said.
Local witnesses told Xinhua that they also saw bulldozers
starting to remove barbed wires on the borders as well as the
rubbles of the cement and blocks fence after more than 15 big holes
were opened in the fence wall.
Palestinian security sources said that thousands of Gaza Strip
residents crossed into Egypt to buy their needs of basic foods,
medicines, clothes and cigarettes.
Eyewitnesses said that Hamas militants placed bombs and
explosives devices on the fence of the borders between Rafah town
in southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, and blew them up.
"I heard several huge explosions at predawn, and I thought the
Israeli army is entering Rafah, but after that we realized that
Hamas militants blew up the fence of the borders," Ziad Qishtta,
resident of Rafah town, told Xinhua.
The residents said that parts of the fence on the borders was
completely destroyed, adding that more than 15 holes were opened
into the fence.
The security sources said that Hamas militants and Egyptian
security forces traded fire for a while, but no injuries were
reported.
Thousands of Egyptian security forces men gathered in the area
to prevent more chaos on the borders.
It was the second time in two years that Palestinians destroy
the fence wall at the borders with Egypt. In September 2005 after
Israel pulled out from the Gaza Strip, thousands Gazans crossed
into Egypt.
The border wall tear-down came after Israel's decision to
slightly ease the blockade against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which
is home to nearly 1.5 million residents.
The coastal enclave heavily depends on outside aid inflow of
almost everything, from basic foodstuffs to medicine.
But on January 17, Israel decided to tighten a siege that has
been imposed on Gaza since mid-June last year and close all
crossings leading to Gaza.
Since then, Israel has been barring fuels and basic food
products from reaching the Gaza Strip, in retaliation to ongoing
makeshift rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants from
Gaza against Israel.
Israel's tightened siege has pushed the strip to the brink of a
humanitarian crisis.
On Tuesday morning, the Gaza Strip received five fuel tankers,
which temporarily eased a humanitarian crisis emerging after five
days of crossing closure by Israel.
Four of the tankers were loaded with diesel to go to Gaza's sole
power station and the fifth carried cooking gas, Gaza officials
said, adding that the four tanks of fuel could barely keep the
power plant working for less than one week.
The lack of fuel had forced Gaza's only power plant to shut down
on Sunday, leaving the Hamas-run enclave dependant on some 140
megawatts of electricity that Israel and Egypt provide.
Earlier on Monday evening, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
decided to slightly ease the siege on Gaza and to allow medical
supplies and a minimal amount of diesel fuel for the power plant in
Gaza.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)
