Hundreds of people continued to cross the border between Gaza and Egypt unhindered on Thursday despite efforts by police on both sides of the frontier to assert control.
Around 30 Palestinian police and 20 Egyptian border guards took up positions at dawn on the main road straddling the border, previously blocked by a mound of earth, but just hours later they failed to stop a group of Palestinians.
Children in school uniform, men and women also crossed the border as Palestinian police were preparing tea a short distance away.
Amid scenes of chaos since Israel’s historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and border area on Monday, thousands of people have crossed the border to visit relatives, go shopping or just see the other side of the divided town of Rafah.
The head of national security in southern Gaza admitted there were still problems but vowed that his men would bring the situation under control, even if they needed to use weapons to do so.
”We still have problems but it’s going to get under control soon,” Colonel Jamal Kayed told Agence Frence Presse (AFP) on a tour of a corridor on the border known by the Israelis as the Philadelphi Road.
”We will stop them. We are going to shoot at them if we have to, starting with warning shots.”
An AFP correspondent was also allowed to cross the border through a hole in the border wall before returning minutes later.
Earlier, border guards in control posts were only authorising Palestinians to return to Gaza and Egyptians to cross back into Egypt.
Egyptian security sources said the flow had been stemmed but admitted a small number of people might still be able to cross the border.
”We have stopped the flow and we are bringing the situation under control now,” a senior Egyptian security official in the area told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
”We are now filtering movements in order to allow the Palestinians to return to Gaza and the Egyptians who had crossed the other way to return,” he added.
Other security sources estimated at more than 10 000 the number of Gaza residents still in Egypt, with most of them concentrated in the Sinai towns of Al-Arish and Sheikh Zuayed, despite the overnight expiry of an ultimatum to cross back.
Overnight, unidentified people blew a second hole through a concrete wall by Israel on the border, allowing people to cross easily.
”There are some parts of the wall that have been destroyed but we are going to guard them,” pledged Kayed.
Egyptian authorities in Rafah on Wednesday urged Palestinians who had entered Egypt illegally to return to Gaza.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had warned against any possible deterioration on the border after Egyptian forces discovered a tunnel filled with weapons on the border.
”We will not accept this situation… The Palestinian Authority must restore law and order,” he was quoted as saying by a spokesperson.
Under an agreement with Israel, Egypt has been deploying a 750-strong force to take security responsibility for the border and prevent weapons smuggling, in an operation due to be completed by the end of this week. ‒ AFP
