3,500 Palestinians cross Egypt’s border to reach Gaza

RAFAH - Around 3,500 Palestinians crossed Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip since Egypt opened it last Tuesday after Israel’s attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a security source said Saturday.

Students who finished their studies in Egypt and abroad crossed back into Gaza, along with ill Palestinians who needed to go to Egypt for medical help.

Around 250 trucks loaded with medical and humanitarian aid crossed into the Strip since Tuesday, the source added.

President Hosny Mubarak ordered opening the border crossing, without specifying how long it would remain open, shortly after Israel’s attack on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza Monday, in which by official accounts nine activists were killed.

In the past, Egypt had occasionally opened the border for three or four days to allow people and aid to pass back and forth.

Israel and Egypt closed the Gaza Strip’s borders after Hamas took control of the territory’s security forces in 2007. According to the international charity Oxfam, the volume of humanitarian supplies entering the Gaza Strip is now at 32 percent of the average before the blockade.

Egypt was criticised for keeping the border closed during Israel’s three-week offensive on the strip last year, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.