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.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary