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Palestinian tide showing little sign of abating

Egypt said yesterday it would keep allowing Palestinians to cross the breached border and help them stock up on supplies on the fourth day of unfettered access from the Gaza Strip, but tried to limit the flow of people across the entire Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian security forces reinforced checkpoints to prevent thousands of Palestinians from leaving the Egyptian side of the divided town of Rafah as carts, buses and trucks continued to pour into Egypt with few security forces present on the border itself.

North Sinai governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid said that "Palestinians will continue to cross until they get all their needs of commodities and foodstuffs" in response to an Israeli lockdown on the impoverished territory.

Egyptian security forces have been "instructed to facilitate the Palestinians' passage and guide them to the places where they could get their needs," Abdel-Hamid said.

He said he was coordinating with the ministries of social solidarity and industry "to secure large amounts of commodities and products to meet the needs of the Palestinians in the country" because many shops had run out of stock.

An Egyptian armored car and armed border police stood by alongside Hamas militants as hundreds of vehicles crossed back and forth a day after bulldozers gouged two new breaches in the wall.

Fighting erupted at a gas station on the Egyptian side of Rafah as stocks ran out, and one attendant was hospitalized after a brawl with Palestinians and Egyptians desperate for fuel.

The gas station owner refused to sell any more fuel, one of the most popular commodities to take back into the Gaza Strip, until security forces arrived to restore order.

Many of the cars waiting to fill up had Palestinian license plates.

On Friday police used electric batons and water cannon in a bid to herd Palestinians back into confinement in Gaza after setting a deadline for everyone to go home, only to see Palestinian bulldozers pierce new breaches in the border wall.

The UN said at least 700,000 Gazans have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies since the heavy steel wall was blasted open on Tuesday.

The Israeli army yesterday said it had banned citizens from entering areas along the 100km frontier with Egypt, fearing attacks by Palestinian militants who had gone to Egypt from Gaza.

The military closed tourist sites and hiking trails in areas east of the border and in a statement urged people not to get too close to those areas.

On Friday the Israeli authorities closed the main road along the desert border. The counter-terrorism headquarters also called on all Israelis in Sinai to return, citing fears of possible abduction by Palestinian militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government last week blocked fuel and aid shipments into Gaza amid violence in which 45 people, most of them militants, were killed in Israeli raids over the past 10 days.

Israel says its blockade strategy and raids are aimed at halting militant rocket fire on its territory, with 10 people lightly wounded over as many days from a barrage of some 200 rockets or mortar rounds.

The Palestinians and human rights groups such as Amnesty International say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

The UN Security Council on Friday again failed to reach a compromise deal that would call for an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza and to rocket strikes on the Jewish state as the Libyan envoy sought instructions from his capital.

Israel has progressively tightened restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza since June 2006, when militants from the territory seized an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid.
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