FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN GAZA GETS A BOOST

 

An exuberant child offers his father's passport 

at the Rafah border four days ago.

It still seems that, even though the border between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah are "open", there are a lot of kinks to be worked out. Since most of those kinks lie with Israeli bureaucracy, things will not be changing in the near future for most Palestinians. When a house is bombed of dozed, identity papers tend to get lost... This seems to me to be a boon from Egypt but perhaps directed by the dictators of Tel Aviv.  

A few headlines from Zionist press, just to let you see how the Israeli press views and propagandizes this step forward:

MOVE LIKELY TO MEAN FLOW OF WEAPONRY BY HAMAS, OTHER TERRORIST GROUPS.

BORDER TO BE OPENED “IN A CONTINUOUS WAY”.

RAFAH OPENING TO ENABLE BUILD-UP OF TERRORIST “MILITARY MACHINE”. 

ANNOUNCEMENT COMES JUST AFTER HAMAS-FATAH DEAL REACHED.

Aletho News

May 31, 2011

RAFAH

The opening of Rafah on 28 May, the only official border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, has created a lifeline for Palestinians living in Gaza, but some, mostly refugees, will still be restricted to their localities because they lack identification papers.

Palestinians were allowed to pass freely from Gaza into Egypt through Rafah for the first time in four years. The decision marked a huge shift in Egyptian foreign policy, introduced after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, and provides a critical valve for the 1.6 million people trapped within Gaza’s borders since June 2007.

The crossing was partially opened in May last year after the deaths of international activists on board a flotilla attempting to break the siege. It operated a five-day week, from noon until 4pm, but was open only to foreign passport holders, Palestinians with foreign visas and medical patients.

The restrictions had made it incredibly difficult for Palestinians to enter Egypt, even on genuine medical grounds. From April 2011 to date, around 2,100 Palestinians have been denied entry into Egypt for unspecified reasons, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Under the new rules, all women, minors and any man under 18 and over 40 will be able to pass freely without a visa six days a week from 9am until 4pm.

Mohamed Matar, 39, a shopkeeper from Rafah, who was among the thousands of people lining up at the crossing on 28 May hoping to leave Gaza, said:

“I won’t be 40 until October but I’m still going to try. My Mum is in Egypt and very sick with Alzheimer’s. She is 80 years old and none of her sons are with her. We are all here in Gaza.

“When I speak to her on the phone she sounds very tired and weak. I’m afraid she will die. If I get through the border tomorrow, at least I can sit with her for a week so that she recognizes me again.”

NOT EVERYONE HAPPY

Not all Palestinians are as optimistic. For men aged 18-40, the reopening makes little difference. Unless they can provide proof of having a place at university abroad or a foreign visa, they will remain stuck in the Gaza Strip.

There are also hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, mostly refugees, without identification documents who cannot leave. While it officially withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel retains control of its maritime, air and most of its land borders. It also retains control of its population registry, including the issuance of Palestinian ID numbers without which it is impossible to travel.

Sana Easa, 39, has not seen her family in Cairo since she moved to Gaza to marry her husband Salah 12 years ago. Both need medical treatment unavailable in Gaza’s hospitals, but even with the new policy at Rafah, they are stuck.

Sana is a Palestinian but was born in Cairo and lived there most of her life. Her parents left Gaza as refugees in 1967. Her Egyptian passport expired in April 2004 but in order to renew it, she must go to Cairo in person. She is still waiting for the Palestinian ID number she applied for 12 years ago.

“The last time I tried to cross Rafah with my husband was in May 2010,” she says. “We got to the Palestinian border at 4am and reached the Egyptian side at 11pm. The Egyptian officials told my husband he and my son could pass through but they told me that because I have expired Egyptian travel documents and I don’t have a Palestinian ID I had to turn back.

“At 1am we decided we would come home together. My husband refuses to go to Egypt for the operation alone. He will be a patient and will need help. It was a disaster. This new opening means nothing to me because I know my case.”

The border opened at 10am local time on 28 May and within 90 minutes 200 Palestinians had crossed into Egypt. Travelers coming in the opposite direction spoke of huge changes on the Egyptian side of the border.

“It’s incredible. Anyone who came to the terminal, they just stamped their passport and gave them entry just like that. I am from Gaza and have a black passport but there were many different passports coming through ~ yellow, blue, red. There was a huge difference,” Hamad Yusef told IRIN.

ISRAELI CONCERNS DISMISSED

Dismissing Israeli concerns about increased security threats to their borders, Ghazi Hamad, director of crossings in Gaza, said that Hamas and Egypt had proved ~ over the past four years, during which they had run Rafah crossing without European Union or Israeli supervision ~ that they could operate according to international standards. Claims that weapons, drugs and criminals had been smuggled through the border were false, he said.

“This is a very important day for Gaza… For four years we have been living under a siege. Now not all our problems are solved, but it’s better.

“We are in talks with the Egyptians and hope that the restrictions applied to men aged 18-40 will be lifted soon.”

Israel objects to the reopening believing that Hamas militants will funnel weapons into Gaza through Rafah.

EGYPT 'TO OPEN RAFAH BORDER PERMANENTLY'

Egyptian state news agency quotes military sources as saying the border with Gaza will be opened starting from Saturday.

IT IS SOO WONDERFUL

TO REPORT ON SOMETHING POSITIVE

HAPPENING TO THE LIVES 

OF ORDINARY PALESTINIANS!   

VIVA PALESTINA!

Al Jazeera

May 25, 2011

There have been several attempts, some successful, to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip [GALLO/GETTY]

Egypt will permanently open its Rafah border crossing starting from Saturday, the country's official news agency reported, easing a four-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The news agency MENA said on Wednesday that Egypt's new military rulers set the date for the opening of the crossing as part of efforts "to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation".

It said the Rafah border crossing would be opened permanently starting on Saturday from 9am to 9pm every day except Fridays and holidays.

"Sources in national security told Al Jazeera that the military intended to open up the border," our correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the capital, Cairo, said.

"A senior member of Hamas visiting Egypt has also confirmed that they have been notified that military will open the border," he said.

Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Gaza, said, "It comes with no surprise, people of Gaza and Egypt have been waiting for the news for the last few weeks."

However, it will not be a full opening as there will be some conditions on exit.

"It will allow basically all women to leave Gaza, also children under the age of 18 years will be allowed to leave as well as men over the age of 40 years. However, those between the age of 18 and 40 years will require Egyptian visa," she said.

"Visa would have to come from Ramallah. Sources in Hamas say, they have been told by the Egyptian authorities over the last few weeks that they [Egyptians] do intend to open some sort of representative office inside Gaza so that people can get the visa from there."

SHARP DEPARTURE FROM PAST

The decision is a sharp departure from the policies of former president Hosni Mubarak, who had restricted the movement of people and goods through the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Our Cairo correspondent said that "mechanisms in place at the border are going to be very important to watch".

"In fact, one of the military's first and important announcements was to abide by all international agreements that the previous government had committed to," he said.

"One of those agreements that have been previously made had to deal with the opening of the border in Gaza, particularly that the Rafah border had to be under the supervision of European monitors. Our sources indeed tell us that European monitors have not been notified that the border will be opening on Saturday."

CONCERNS FOR ISRAELIS

Certainly this is going to cause some concerns for Israel particularly Europeans as to what mechanism is going to be put in place," our correspondent said.

Sources at Rafah say that it is unlikely all the mechanisms needed to be put in place can actually arrive and assume the kind of flow that is suspected to come out, he said.

"One of the biggest problems for Gazans besides a shortage of food and supplies has been the psychological impact of not allowing 1.5m people to move freely. There's no doubt if the border is opened freely for all, there's going to be a massive influx of Palestinians who would want to get out for the first time since the seize was put in place."

A year ago Israel significantly eased its restrictions on cargo entering Gaza, but it still severely limits entry and exit of Gazans through its northern crossing into Israel.

Gazans have circumvented the blockade by operating hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the 15km Gaza-Egypt border.

The tunnels have been used to bring in all manner of products, as well as people.

Israel charges Hamas has used the tunnels to import weapons, including rockets that can reach main population centres in Israel's centre.

The crossing has been mostly closed, in line with an Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, since 2007 when Hamas took control of the coastal territory.

ISRAELI JETS ATTACK GAZAN TARGETS, KILL THREE

Gaza
Ma'an
January 8, 2010
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Israeli warplanes carried out a series of raids on sites throughout the Gaza Strip late Thursday night, witnesses said and Israel's military confirmed.

Three citizens were killed and two others injured in the Israeli raids that targeted a tunnel near Rafah crossing south of Gaza.

Medical sources in Abu Yousif An-Najjar hospital identified the dead as Barakat Abu Shalouf, Odai Abu Heesh, 15, and Naser Al-Mahmum, 22.

Muawiya Hassanein, the Gaza Health Ministry's director of ambulance and emergency services said the jets struck four areas in total. Early reports from Al-Jazeera said a missile killed one Palestinian and injured two inside a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Locals reported to Ma'an that smoke was rising above the tunnel area just after midnight. At least two missiles landed in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, one of them near a school, and a third between Khan Younis and Rafah.

Jets were still flying overhead the area early into Friday morning. Two missiles struck what was described as a military target in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zaytoun.

Residents said a missile hit the center of the nearby An-Nuseirat Refugee Camp. According to an Israeli military spokeswoman, the targets included a weapons manufacturing facility in Gaza City and three tunnels, two along the Egyptian border and another near the border with Israel in central Gaza.

She said the third tunnel was intended to facilitate attacks on Israel. The official said the airstrikes, among the most wide-scale attacks since Israel's devastating assault last winter, came in retaliation for the 10 mortar shells reportedly launched toward southern Israel on Thursday. The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees said a total of 14 mortar shells were launched in three rounds on Thursday.

The military spokeswoman told Ma'an Israel "will not tolerate the firing of rockets by terror organizations at Israel and will continue to respond against attempts to disrupt the calm in Israel's southern communities."

The three mortar barrages were the largest attack on southern Israel since the end of its Operation Cast Lead, which left some 1,400 Palestinians dead.

Projectiles have been intermittently launched at Israeli targets in clusters of two to four, with no more than two barrages in a single day. The PRC said the first launch of two launches included eight, and the second an additional four mortars.

After the first two launches, Israeli forces dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets into areas in northern and eastern Gaza (pictured above), warning Gazans to stay away from the border area.

Shortly after the third attack, Palestinians in Jabaliya reported hearing explosions, although no evidence of Israeli artillery fire or airstrikes was reported. One of the projectiles landed near the Kerem Shalom crossing, prompting its closure.

'Take responsibility for your future' The leaflets, which residents said were dropped in northern and southern Gaza, warned Palestinians not to approach within 300 meters of the Israeli border, and against digging tunnels into Egypt.

One reported that the "prohibited zone" includes border areas in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabaliya in the north, Khan Younis, Khuza’a, and Abasan in the center, and Rafah in the south. A second warned Palestinians against using tunnels to circumvent the Israeli blockade of the territory.

"Terrorists, tunnel owners, and the smugglers of military equipment know for certain that the continuation of terrorist attacks, the smuggling of military equipment, and the digging of tunnels will be targeted by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], but they continue to work in your residential areas and seek refuge among you," according to the flier, which was written in Arabic.

"The digging [of] tunnels under your houses and the smuggling of military equipment into Gaza constitutes a threat to your lives, the lives of your children, and family, and your property," it added. "Do not stay idle and let the terrorists use you. They will not stand beside you when harm is done to you and your property. ... Take responsibility for your future."

The leaflet also lists an email address and a phone number urging Palestinians to provide information about smugglers and tunnel operators. A military spokesman confirmed that the leaflets were dropped from air force planes, warning that anyone who comes within 300 meters of the border is "putting themselves at risk," warning against weapons smuggling.

The spokesman said "the IDF will operate against anyone who harbors terrorists." Following the first wave of mortar attacks, Israel announced that the Kerem Shalom crossing point was closed after sources said a mortar shell fired from Gaza landed in the area.

Palestinian officials said between 86 and 96 trucks had been scheduled to deliver aid to Gaza.

Israel shut down its borders with Gaza after the elected Hamas government took full control of the territory in June 2007.

The closure has reduced imports of vital goods to one-fifth of pre-blockade levels and prevented the Strip's 1.5 million residents from leaving.

WHICH IS OF COURSE WHY THEY DIG TUNNELS TO GET THE MOST BASIC ITEMS TO LIVE

EGYPT FURTHER ENCAGES GAZA

To be honest, I am a tad too choked to even comment on this, yet another betrayal of the Palestinian people, by Mubarak, despot and Israeli tool, current Pharaoh and disgrace to all decent Egyptians.

America helping? Would anyone expect anything less of this Crusade oriented country so glued to the genocidal Zionazi policies of Israel?

Of course the Palestinians will work around it. These people are to be loved and admired for their boundless ingenuity to survive. They shame their enemies just by breathing! THIS WALL MUST FALL

and when it does
These resilient people
Will rise like the Phoenix
from its dust.

Eva Bartlett,
The Electronic Intifada,
30 December 2009

As the one year anniversary of the 23-day Israeli massacre in Gaza passes, media attention is rightfully focused on the atrocities and war crimes committed by the Israeli military on the imprisoned population in Gaza.

With two separate delegations intending to enter the Gaza Strip via its southern, Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing, Egypt now finds itself in the spotlight for have banned entry to one convoy, Viva Palestina's humanitarian aid convoy traveling from Jordan, and having threatened to arrest and deport international activists with another delegation, the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo.

But further reasons bring Egypt to the spotlight: what many observers say is Egypt's complicity in the siege on Gaza, imposed since shortly after Hamas was elected in early 2006; Egypt's deafening silence as the Israeli assault on Gaza raged one year ago; and the new steel wall Egypt is having constructed along its border with Gaza.

While the cranes, drills and machinery being used range from Norwegian, Japanese and Egyptian companies, it is widely believed that the plans and financing for the wall come from the US.

Recently, the US consular in Egypt confirmed that the US is supporting the Egyptian government's building of the underground wall ~ both technologically and monetarily. Egypt is second only to Israel in receiving the greatest amount of US foreign aid, not considering funds related to the US occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ostensibly, Egyptian authorities say the steel wall is meant to curb all transfers via the subterranean network. Realistically, however, tunnel workers say they can dig deeper and avoid the wall. Practically, it is in Egypt's interest to allow the tunnels to work ~ Egypt itself profits, taking a cut from the foods, clothes, animals, appliances and even vehicles smuggled into Gaza.

The tunnels are the only reason Gaza has not tumbled into a full-blown humanitarian disaster. That they enable foods and medicines to enter Gaza has meant the severity of Israel's continued closures of all other borders has not had reached its maximum impact.

The other crossing points into Gaza are Israeli-controlled. All but one, Erez in Gaza's north, are either closed or used for extremely limited transfers of a scarce amount of basic goods and fuel. The Erez crossing is notoriously impossible for Palestinians to use as an exit point, even for those holding doctors' referrals for medical care outside of Gaza.

With and the Egyptian government's new underground wall and the closure of the Rafah crossing ~ Gaza's sole exit to the outside world ~ Egypt's complicity shines more than ever.

In January 2008, Palestinians broke through the former iron fence encaging Gaza, and for five days streamed into Egypt to buy provisions and breathe freedom.

Children playing at the wall when it was tumbled a few years ago.

Palestinian security along the Gaza side of the border say that work near the Rafah crossing has finished and that Egypt is now working westwards on the central stretch of the wall. In total, the new wall will be up to 11 kilometers long and 18 meters deep.

The following images taken for The Electronic Intifada show Egyptian authorities building the new underground wall on the border with Gaza (the wall in the foreground is a separate wall that was built shortly after Palestinians broke the siege in January 2008).







Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who arrived in Gaza in November 2008 on the third Free Gaza Movement boat. She has been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement and documenting Israel's ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During Israel's recent assault on Gaza, she and other ISM volunteers accompanied ambulances and documenting the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

GAZA ~ISRAEL STRIKES AT KHAN YOUNIS AND RAFAH

Israel Strikes At Khan Younis & Rafah

By politicaltheatrics
November 18, 2009
URUKNET

The Israel Air Force struck smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border late Wednesday night, a day after Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the western Negev.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office reported that the IAF planes also attacked a nearby structure believed to have served as a weapons facility near the Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Palestinian sources said three people were hurt in the attack, which they claimed also targeted a military training compound.

The IDF report also indicated that strike was carried out in response to a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, and which landed in the Shaar Hanegev RStrip. In the past month some 15 rockets have been fired into Israel,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.

Late last week, the IDF as well Palestinian medical workers reported that Israeli soldiers had shot and killed a Palestinian and wounded at least one other in a confrontation near a Gaza Strip border crossing.

An IDF spokeswoman said the troops opened fire at Palestinians suspected of placing explosives near a security fence. One died of injuries, a second was taken to hospital and three others were seized.

The fatality was the first since August along the tense border of the coastal territory ruled by Hamas Islamists that has remained largely quiet since the Israeli offensive that ended in January.

Gaza medics said they retrieved the body of one Palestinian after the incident at the Karni crossing in central Gaza, and that Israel had picked up another Palestinian who appeared to them to have been wounded critically.

Hamas police described those shot at on Friday as youths who had gone to the area near a Gaza border fence with Israel to hunt for dogs, but did not say whether they were armed.

Following the border incident, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a Qassam rocket into southern Israel. The attack caused neither injuries nor property damage.

Notes/Sources:
1.Haaretz

Author's Comments:

These “smuggling tunnels” between the outside world and Gaza bring in an array of items, and (unlike what the main-stream media tells us) they are not always weapons – a majority of the items being ’smuggled’ into Gaza are necessities such as food and fuel. Due to the siege on Gaza not only have the Palestinians suffered without food but also medical supplies; they are dying to survive while living under Israeli occupation.

This winter will be a cold one for the Palestinians,especially those living in tents after their own homes were pillaged to make way for illegal Israeli settlers.

Those living in Gaza suffer without heat,electricity and food ~ they are literally caged inside with no way out.

Israel complains about rockets while they rape and bomb the Palestinians,no matter where they run to (i.e. UN buildings,schools,mosques) ~ they have no right to complain when the starving masses strike back,especially when their rockets do not even harm any Israeli citizens.

When you occupy land which is not yours and refuse to allow the indigenous population to eat and keep warm at night do not complain about flimsy rockets made by the suffering prisoners of your occupation.

If you keep my family from eating I will dig as many tunnels into my land as I wish in order to feed them. If you keep my loved ones from feeling warm in the winter-time I will break as many walls in order to cover their cold limbs.

And if you bomb my land and my people I will strike back.