Israel's Gaza mess

Spontaneous popular action on the part of Palestinians in Gaza left all political players reeling last week, sparking an influx of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians -- near half of the Gaza Strip population -- into the Egyptian Sinai, desperate for food, fuel, medical supplies and other basic necessities of life. Can the genie be put back in the bottle? And should it?

Dina Ezzat | Al-Ahram, Issue No. 882, 31 January - 6 February 2008

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Palestinians cross the breached border in Rafah between Egypt and the Gaza Strip

"What will happen next? Nobody is telling us anything. We had a few days of freedom, but now we are going back to our prison," said Randa, a 26- year-old Palestinian woman, as she tried to climb a one metre high ladder over the wall separating Egypt and Israeli-occupied Gaza.

Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly late Friday evening, Randa was in pain -- to the point of tears. She was carrying her nine-month-old son with one arm and around 20 kilos of groceries she bought in Arish with the other. Following were her three young daughters, all primary school age, each carrying a bag as heavy.

Several wooden ladders lined both sides of the wall in Rafah, set there for women, children and the elderly. As for the men, they were simply jumping the wall in endless waves while hundreds of Egyptian border guards and riot police kept watch.

Randa and her daughters were among what is estimated to be some 700,000 Palestinians who crossed the Egypt-Gaza border, often more than once, in havoc but happiness, starting late last week after Palestinian resistance fighters blew five big holes in the separating wall, effectively ending the siege imposed by Israel that has been condemned by the European Union and international agencies as illegal collective punishment.

Continued . . .