By Xinhua
Gaza : Palestinians flow into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsular lessened on Monday after Egyptian security forces heavily deployed on the roads linking between southern Gaza Strip and the Egyptian coastal town of al-Arish, witnesses said.
The Egyptian plan was to install checkpoints on the 40-kilometer-long way starting from the Palestinian-Egyptian border in Rafah and ending in al-Arish, added the witnesses.
In Egyptian border town of al-Arish, the security personnel forced the markets to close down so the Palestinians would return home when they cannot buy.
On his way back after visiting his family in Gaza, Rami al-Ghoul, 20, a Palestinian student at Sinai University, said he had seen vehicles of Egyptian border police carrying circles of barbered wire and heading for Rafah.
Al-Ghoul added that Egyptian Central Security Services were checking the documents of the travelers on the highway and returning the Palestinians via trucks.
For five days, since Wednesday, Egypt allowed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to go for shopping into al-Arish and to stock up with food after an Israeli closure on Gaza badly affected the well-being of the population.
The Egyptian decision to facilitate the entry of the people was made after gunmen from Hamas, the Islamic movement which rules Gaza, blew up holes in the border fence between Gaza and Egypt.