Militants bulldoze fence; Gazans flock into Egypt
RAFAH, Egypt – Dust-covered young men carrying hundred-pound bags of cement on their shoulders scampered over the imposing iron fencing that once separated the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Veiled women from Gaza in black abayas with six-packs of Coca-Cola bottles on their heads walked past Egyptian border police, who had orders to let the Palestinians shop. Families weighed down donkey carts with cheese, gasoline, olive oil, cigarettes, dish soap, milk, medicine, car batteries, tires and potato chips.
After seven months of living under a crippling Israeli economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian desperation exploded Wednesday.
“We’ve been choked, choked,” said Umm Fadi, a 40-year-old mother of five, as she and her 11-year-old son stood next to an Egyptian armored personnel carrier. “Tell the Israelis to leave us alone. Tell the world to look at how we are living.”
In a well-planned, pre-dawn operation, Palestinian militants used bombs, bulldozers and blowtorches to bring down sections of the 25-foot-high concrete slabs and iron fencing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Within hours, tens of thousands of Palestinians were scrambling over the jumbled concrete slabs, walking past Egyptian border police and flooding into Egypt.
“Today is like paradise,” said Ahmed Yousef, political adviser for Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed Palestinian Authority prime minister and leader of the Islamic group Hamas, which won parliamentary elections a year ago and controls Gaza. “This is a moment of great joy.”
The 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been squeezed by the economic embargo that Israel began imposing last June after Hamas seized control.
Almost all factories have closed. An estimated 80,000 people have lost their jobs. The Gaza Strip essentially has run out of everything from fresh milk to cement.
The pressure is intended to bring the Hamas leaders ruling Gaza to their knees. Israeli leaders say the sanctions will continue until Palestinian militants end their daily mortar and rocket attacks on southern Israel.
“There is no justification for demanding that we allow Gaza residents to live a normal life as long as in our streets and courtyards shells are falling and rockets are shot,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday night.
Over the weekend, Israel decided to turn up the pressure by cutting off fuel to Gaza. Its power plant was forced to shut down, throwing large swaths of the Gaza Strip into darkness Monday. Palestinian desperation was reaching a breaking point.
On Wednesday, it was clear that long sections of the metal had been cut and toppled. Long sections of concrete slabs had been knocked over.
Before long, Gaza residents flocked to the border, in cargo trucks, taxicab trunks, donkey carts and on motorcycles.
People rushed back and forth across the border trying to stock up on basic goods no longer found in Gaza.
“This is how pathetic the situation has become, that people have to literally break out of Gaza just to get food and fuel,” said John Ging, the Gaza City-based director of the United Nations refugee agency.
On Wednesday, Israeli leaders expressed concern that the unregulated border could become a new route for arms smugglers.
“Gaza is already a terrorist entity where they fire rockets every day,” Israeli Foreign Minister Aryeh Mekel said. “If the exit is open, the entry is open.”
The Bush administration stood with Israel, saying Hamas was responsible for the suffering in Gaza.
“The Palestinians living in Gaza are living under chaos because of Hamas, and the blame has to be placed fully at their feet,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.