By Xinhua
Cairo : Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday said he ordered the Egyptian security forces at the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egyptian border to allow Palestinians to cross the terminal to buy their basic needs, the Egyptian Nile TV reported.
Speaking to reporters after the inauguration of the 40th session of the Cairo International Book Fair, Mubarak noted that the Egyptian authorities at the Rafah Crossing was ordered to let unarmed Gazans in to purchase food and other their basic needs, which were scarce in the besieged territory, and then go back to Gaza.
Mubarak also urged the Egyptian government and non-governmental organizations to provide relief assistance to Palestinians.
Earlier, the governor of North Sinai raised the state of alert in anticipation of any eventuality after thousands of Palestinians barged into the wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt at Rafah checkpoint, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.
After blowing up the wall separating the Egyptian Rafah side from the Palestinian one, those Palestinians entered Egypt and headed immediately for shops to buy food stuffs and medicine supplies, and went to gas stations to fill containers, the MENA report said.
Many Palestinians said they were forced to barge into the Egyptian side as a result of the Israeli blockade of the impoverished territory, according to the report.
Egyptian policemen and border guards have not interfered in anyway with the Palestinians, MENA added.
Many Gazans were enraged by Egypt’s shutdown of the Rafah crossing, the only gateway to the outside world bypassing Israel.
Hamas leaders and the deposed Hamas-led Palestinian government have repeatedly urged Egypt to open the Rafah crossing and let in humanitarian needs in the face of Israel’s relentless blockade. On Monday, Egypt reinforced security on the border with about 300 policemen.
On Tuesday, brief clashes erupted as hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators, mostly Hamas supporters, thronged and tried to push their way through the Rafah border crossing.
The conflict left some 15 Egyptian security force members and at least four Palestinians injured by gunfire or stones. Egypt on Tuesday expressed “extreme regret” about the incident.
Earlier on Wednesday, militants from Hamas’ armed wing blew up fence walls at the borders between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, which allowed thousands of Gazans to flock into the Egyptian side, witnesses and security sources said.
Gaza 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.
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 Jan. 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.
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.