GAZANS PROTEST

Ben Heine
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As hot as it was, thousands of Palestinians protested the closure of the main termina between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians are literally getting the 'gears' from both Israel and Egypt... and as usual, the world sits in silence.....

You can read the deatail in THIS AP report via HaAretz....


Gazans protest border closed to relatives trapped inside Egypt

By The Associated Press

About 2,000 people protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians trapped in Egypt to return.

The Rafah border terminal, the only gateway for Palestinian travelers to the world not controlled by Israel, has been closed since June 9, the start of bloody factional fighting in which Hamas routed rival Fatah forces and took control of Gaza.

Also Thursday, Egyptian authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on Egypt-Gaza border town of Rafah following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian gunmen planned to blow up a border wall to allow thousands of Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side to return home, an Egyptian police official said.

Thousands of police and security forces were deployed at Rafah and roads leading to the town were sealed off, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"Stores and eateries at the town were ordered to close," he said.

Since the Hamas takeover, Egypt, Israel and a EU team that monitored the crossing have kept it closed. Health conditions have become a concern because many Palestinians stranded in Egypt went there for medical treatment.

"This crossing must be opened," said Salah Hassanen, a local leader from Islamic Jihad, one of the groups organizing the protest. "It's a Palestinian crossing. Our people, our relatives are dying on the other side."

Waving flags and banners reading Open the crossing and Rafah is our only gateway, the protesters requested the crossing be opened and complained of health problem among relatives stuck on the other side.

About 6,000 Palestinians are waiting on the Egyptian side of the crossing, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information. Most are staying with relatives, in mosques, at an airport or in rented houses. Some 30,000 others are waiting elsewhere in Egypt, the ministry said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 25 Palestinians who left Gaza for medical treatment have died in Egypt while waiting to return. Their bodies were returned to Gaza through coordination with Israel.

Most recently, the body of a 28-year-old woman who went to Egypt for chemotherapy was returned to Gaza on Tuesday through Kerem Shalom, a border crossing controlled by Israel.

Fatima Olwan, 52, said her daughter Sana, 29, went to Egypt for eye surgery and is now stuck on the other side with three children.

"She's running out of money," Olwan said. "Her children are sick from the hot weather and I'm afraid that she's going to have side effects from the laser surgery."

Israel has proposed rerouting the stranded Palestinians through Kerem Shalom crossing, near the meeting point of Gaza, Egypt and Israel.

Egypt has supported the idea, but Hamas has rejected it, saying travelers must be allowed to return through Rafah, which is not controlled by Israel.

Olwan saw things differently.

"Open Kerem Shalom or whatever," she said. "I want my daughter to come back."

The Palestinians took control of Rafah under a U.S.-brokered agreement worked out after Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005. Under the deal, Israeli agreed to allow security forces from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement to operate the crossing under EU supervision. The agreement broke down after Fatah forces were ousted from Gaza.