Updated Fri. Jan. 25 2008 11:47 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Palestinians used a bulldozer to demolish a new section of the frontier with Egypt on Friday, allowing thousands of Gaza residents to stream across the border as security forces struggled to close off other holes in the barrier.
Since militants blew up part of the border on Wednesday, previously isolated residents of the Gaza Strip have enjoyed virtually free passage into Egypt.
The Gazans have been taking advantage of the opportunity to purchase goods not available in the Strip and visit rarely seen relatives, said CTV's Mideast Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer.
Earlier Friday, security forces formed a human shield in an attempt to allow traffic to only flow one-way -- permitting Palestinians to return home after visiting Egypt.
But the border became porous again later in the day when the bulldozer was used to knock down another section of the barrier.
Egypt! ian security forces fired into the air in an attempt to stop the flow of Palestinians, but were unable to hold back the crowds.
Mackey Frayer told CTV's Canada AM that Egyptian officials had warned the border freedom wouldn't last amid mounting international pressure to reassert control over the frontier.
"This was a rare and golden opportunity for people and it's no wonder there were hundreds of thousands of people who went across to try and take advantage of it. Not only to stock up on things but as one man told me, just to feel like he was part of the outside world again," Mackey Frayer said on Friday.
"So for the Egyptian officials now to be telling people they have to go back, there's a real frustration, there's a tension, and they're hoping they can do this in an orderly fashion."
Since Wednesday, Palestinians pushed their way through the broken border points with guards funnelling crowds through a number of openings -- competing with a! gauntlet of livestock, truckloads of cement, fertilizer and f! ood to g et into Egypt, The Associated Press reports.
Security forces did nothing on Friday to halt the flow of Egyptian goods streaming across the border.
Mackey Frayer said it was a "very tense situation along that border as Egyptian border guards try to get it under control," with many Palestinians still hoping to get into Egypt.
Hamas was also helping to establish control on the Palestinian side of the border, with dozens of guards dressed in black, checking bags and packages for banned items such as weapons and drugs.
"By all accounts it's going to take a very long time to try and resolve this situation and there's no expectation that people are going to return to Gaza willingly," Mackey Frayer told CTV Newsnet on Friday.
The border breach was seen by many as a victory for the militant group Hamas that controls Gaza, and can claim to have successfully broken through the internationally supported Israeli trade ban.
"Hamas has won th! e strategic battle,'' Abu Ali, a 45-year-old Gazan dressed in a business suit, who was on the Egyptian side to buy materials for his construction company, told AP.
"Ask anyone here how they reached this place and they will tell you it was because of Hamas.''
Others, however, saw it as a temporary reprieve to a situation that isn't likely to change any time soon.
Palestinian militants used explosives to knock down the border wall on Wednesday.
The development prompted Israel's deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai to say Israel wants to begin to hand over control of Gaza to Egypt, since the border divide had been opened.
Egypt quickly dismissed the suggestion.
"The border will go back as normal,'' said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki.
"The current situation is only an exception and for temporary reasons.''
According to United Nations estimated, roughly half a million people have crossed the border! since it was blown open on Wednesday, Mackey Frayer said. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Tom Lindstrom is a experienced online marketer, and the editor of The Home Business Archive. For more tips about running a home based business, visit www.tlmarketing.net
Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080124/gaza_egypt_080125/20080125?hub=World
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