Egypt shuts down Al-Arish in apparent warning to Palestinians

Date: 27 / 01 / 2008 Time: 12:02

Gaza – Ma'an –

Egyptian security forces ordered shops to close in the city of Al-Arish, bordering the Gaza Strip, as Palestinians from the Gaza continued to flock to Egypt through the newly-opened Rafah border.

The move appeared to be a warning to Palestinians who have relished five days of freedom since Palestinian fighters blew gaps in the Gaza-Egyptian border wall, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into Egypt to shop for food and other basic supplies. For more than two days, Egyptian police looked on while traffic flowed through the border.

On Friday, Egyptian forces attempted to close the border, but failed to do so when a Palestinian bulldozer knocked a new opening in the wall.

Ma'an's reporter said that the city of Al-Arish was empty of Egyptian foot traffic, though Palestinians could be seen wandering the streets searching for an open shop to buy their needs.

Meanwhile, Palestinian students, patients, and businesspeople continued to demonstrate in front of the offices of the Egyptian Interior Ministry for the Sinai region, demanding that they be allowed to travel outside of Egypt. Egyptian officials have not allowed Palestinians from Gaza to travel outside of the Sinai.

Most of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents have been trapped inside the Strip by an Israeli blockade for months. Among them are hundreds of students who have been kept from their studies at foreign universities and patients who need medical treatment abroad.

Separately, Kamal Abu Silmiya, the chief Palestinian food inspector for the Gaza Strip, announced that goods purchased in Egypt would be subject to scrutiny before being allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.