Egypt/Gaza
Egyptian border guards appeared to be taking steps to close the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday, forming a human chain and blocking movement of Palestinians into Egypt with their riot shields, witnesses said. Egyptian police formed a cordon Friday, blocking Gazans from passing into Egypt through the main breach in the border. Angry Gazans threw stones at the Egyptians and scuffled with policemen and shots were fired in the air. The Egyptians were allowing passage only to Palestinians seeking to return to the Strip after visiting Egypt, in the wake of the demolition of large stretches of the border wall by Hamas militants Wednesday. However, Palestinians were still getting through in other areas, and Egyptians posted there made no effort to stop them. Since the barrier was breached, Egypt has allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to go back and forth, but has rejected any suggestion of assuming responsibility for the crowded, impoverished territory. In what looked like a first step toward restoring control, Egyptian security forces on Thursday began turning back Palestinians who attempted to travel deeper into Egypt - though they did nothing to stem the flow of Egyptian goods making their way to the frontier region to replenish rapidly depleting stocks. At the same time, dozens of Hamas militants dressed in black stood on the Gaza side of the border, in front of the fallen wall, checking people's bags and packages for weapons, drugs and other prohibited items as they re-entered Gaza. As the presence of Egyptian and Hamas security forces grew, so did the crowds, as Gazans sought to stock up on basic supplies before Egypt made good on its word to reseal the frontier. By all accounts, this week's breaching of the Gaza-Egypt border has provided a significant popularity boost to Gaza's Hamas rulers, who can claim they successfully broke through the internationally supported Israeli closure that has deprived the coastal strip of normal trade and commerce for nearly two years. Hamas planning to launch attacks from Sinai Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip have used the newly open border with Egypt to send numerous terrorists into the Sinai peninsula over the last two days, with the goal of then sending them from Sinai into Israel to commit attacks, defense officials said Thursday. The Israel Defense Forces, the police and the Shin Bet security service have consequently beefed up their forces and their alert level along the Israeli-Egyptian border in an effort to thwart infiltrations. Should terrorists succeed in entering Israel from Sinai, one defense official said, they might commit suicide bombings, kidnap soldiers or civilians, or attack small agricultural communities or military outposts. (11,15)
