Flow vs. Flow
Egyptians open up the nozzles to turn back the tide of humanity flowing through the breaches as border-closing operations commence. Reuters:
RAFAH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian forces fired water cannons at Palestinians trying to force their way across the Gaza-Egypt border on Friday and warned over loudspeakers the border would close at 3 p.m. (1 p.m. British time), witnesses said.
But security sources said Egyptian forces still did not have direct orders to fully close the border at any specific time, and a similar announcement made by loudspeakers on Thursday evening to close the border had not been carried out.
“Palestinian brothers, quickly return to the border. The border will close at 3 p.m.,” police announced on a loudspeaker mounted to a car at the border. Similar announcements were being made by loudspeaker in the coastal town of el-Arish.
Security sources said Egyptian security men were trying to block Palestinians from entering at all, apart from one border point in Rafah, two days after Palestinians blasted open the border in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
The sources said Egypt had closed back roads that Palestinians were using after entering at other spots along the border, and were also trying to stop Palestinians from reaching el-Arish.
Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire near the collapsed steel border wall early on Friday, and witnesses said Palestinians threw stones at Egyptian forces, who responded by beating some Palestinians with clubs and firing several shots into the air.
Almost sounds like the Gypos have got themselves a little Intifadah going. Sticks, stones, water cannons, explosives, AKs. All your party needs.
Israel, which says its blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza is intended to counter rocket fire by militants, has said it wanted to cut its links with the coastal strip by handing the supply of electricity, water and medicine to others.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was up to Egypt to ensure the security of its border with Gaza, and Washington said it was willing to work with Egyptian authorities to restore order but did not give details.
Well, that sounds like an incredibly bad idea. Unless the plan is to hand out exploding cigars to Hamas gunmen.
Gateway’s got your border-breach art and a roundup.
Meanwhile, these bummed-out unemployed Palestinian smugglers will have something to smile about again. Globe and Mail:
Mr. Mohammed is a smuggler, one of the hundreds of young Palestinian men who - until Wednesday - made their living crawling deep underground through the maze of tunnels that link homes on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip with buildings on the other side of the border in the Sinai Peninsula. For a share of the profits, the 21-year-old would purchase cigarettes, weapons and other goods in Egypt and risk his life to lug them back nearly one kilometre underground to the closed market of Gaza.
Mr. Mohammed said he was 17 metres below the surface, digging a new tunnel that was almost complete, when the ground above him started to shake with the first of more than a dozen early morning explosions set off by militants affiliated with Hamas. With his heart pounding and chunks of dirt falling around him, he quickly scrambled to the surface as most of the iron wall that separated the Palestinian and Egyptian halves of Gaza came crashing to the ground.
He said that when he got out, his boss told him to quit digging because “nobody needs tunnels any more.”
…
“I’m happy that the people can go freely now, but it has greatly affected my work,” he said. “The people are happy, but I don’t have a job any more.”
Why so glum, Mr. Mohammed? The Egyptians have fired up the water cannons and the cattle prods!
Topics: Palestinians
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:24 am on Friday, January 25, 2008
One Response to “Flow vs. Flow”
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January 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I have a feeling before this is over, the Gazans are going to be wishing they were “oppressed” by Israelis again.