Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Egypt Opens Its Border

Also in the Guardian:

Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip today amid mounting criticism of Israel's violent raid on a flotilla of aid ships attempting to break the three-year blockade of the enclave.
Thousands of Palestinians crossed the border at Rafah as Turkey called for Israel to be punished for the attack, which left at least nine people dead. Volatility in the area was further underlined by reports that five members of Islamic Jihad were killed in Gaza in two separate attacks.

The Israeli army confirmed its aircraft had shot at militants in Gaza, killing three, after they had fired rockets into southern Israel, and that two gunmen were killed after breaching Israel's border fence.

Earlier, putting aside his hostility to Hamas, which has links to his political opponent, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, ordered that the crossing be opened until further notice. The move is being seen as a response to increasing Arab anger at what is perceived as Egyptian complicity in the blockade.

The border normally only opens once a month for a few days.

An Egyptian security source told Reuters: "Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian and medical aid to enter. The border will remain open for an unlimited time."
So now this blockade has been a complete failure. Egypt has opened up their borders, so the Palestinians can get whatever they like. The Israelis can't stop it, unless they either go after Egypt—which would be ludicrous—or close down the Gazan/Egyptian border.
Since this is going to be an open border, it means that all the munitions and war materiel that wasn't on the aid ships can now be easily shipped from Egypt to Gaza, too! Israel's security has actually been harmed by this nonsense!

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