It's not 'breaking news'; the Egyptians opened the Rafah crossing weeks ago. See the comment I left on AZ's blog on Jan 3. But it is good news, and an admirable 'fuck you' gesture from Egypt to the zionists.

Actually this is major news. The earlier WUFYS post referred to pilgrims trying to enter Gaza after they returned from the Hajj.

In this case Palestinians blew up most of the seven-mile prison wall that divides the border town of Rafah from Egypt. They set off 17 explosions before dawn, which opened two major gaps. By 10am the wall was two-thirds demolished. Palestinians then used a bulldozer to tear down more of the wall so cars could drive through. Then came busloads.

Tens of thousands poured into Egypt on foot, in cars, or riding donkey carts to buy supplies. Hamas directed traffic. Palestinians returned with milk, cigarettes, medicine, plastic bottles of fuel, bags of cement, and so on.

The Egyptian government recently moved up large numbers of guards to PREVENT this, but when the Palestinians streamed out, the Egyptian border guards let them. In the past, Egyptian forces sealed up every hole the Palestinians made, and helped imprison Palestinians inside the death camp—but the latest Jewish aggression was too much.

Hamas initially prevented people from getting through (before dawn). On the other side, Egyptian forces focused spotlights on breaks in the wall, and deployed troops to block any exit. When the sun came up, however, thousands of Gazans had massed at the border, and Hamas began letting them cross. Most Egyptian security and police officers were later pulled away from the border. It seems that Jewish brutality went too far even for the corrupt collaborationist government of Hosni Mubarak.

This will ABSOLUTELY INFURIATE THE JEWS. They are so humilated that their reprisals will be fierce.

Shops on the Egyptian side quickly sold out, so unfortunately some Palestinians took advantage of that. They bought a $53 carton of cigarettes in Sinai, for example, and sold them for five times that in Gaza, but then they used the money to feed their families.

One man returning to Gaza carried seven pistols, but Hamas confiscated them.

John Cougar: “When the Walls Came Crumbling Down”
(It’s just a black screen, but it has the best sound quality of the YouTube clips)

Many Palestinians bought home supplies stores in the Egyptian border town of Rafah. Egyptian shopkeepers took advantage of the sudden surge in customers, swiftly raising prices of milk, taxi rides and cigarettes, but Palestinians bought everything anyway. They used dollars rather than Jewish sheckels, because the dollar recently rose against the sheckel.

Children bought soft drinks and chocolate. Women scooped up cheeses and cleaning products. Men stocked up on cigarettes --all unavailable in Gaza because of Jewish brutality. Other Palestinians staggered into Gaza carrying televisions. Some sported new mobile phones.

In Gaza City, prices of cigarettes — which had skyrocketed during Jewish closure of the death camp-- fell by 70 percent.

Crowds waited at roadsides in Gaza City, trying to catch rides to the border. All cabs in Gaza went to the border to take people across.

Many people went for the sheer experience of standing outside the death camp.

Four Palestinians in wheelchairs were pushed to the Egyptian side, where ambulances took them for treatment in Arish, a larger Egyptian town close to Gaza.

Egyptian police sat in armored vehicles, just watching as Gazans poured through the border on foot, with donkey carts, and motorcycles.

Hamas members controlled the Gaza side of the border, and mingled with the shoppers in Egypt, wary of them returning with weapons or explosives that could be used to kill Hamas members. Hamas police confiscated seven handguns from one man.

The shoppers depleted Rafah stores, prompting 32-year-old Ashraf el-Sayyid, an Egyptian, to ride his motorbike into the Gaza Strip and say, "I need to buy bread for my children. The Palestinians left us with nothing. It's true, they are dear to us, but today, they were like locusts."

(Yeah, well, what do you expect? JEWS caused this.)

Egypt has defied its Jewish masters. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassam Zaki said Egypt "is opening up its arms to its brethren on the Palestinian side. For as long as this is a humanitarian crisis, they're will be able to cross and get their needs. We are opening the Rafah crossing because it's a very dire humanitarian situation."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he ordered his troops to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt because Palestinians were starving, according to Egypt's state-run news agency MENA. "I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons," Mubarak told The Associated Press.

Egyptian guards temporarily barred journalists from moving into Sinai.

The mass movement into Egypt began about 2 a.m. Wednesday, when residents heard explosions near the border.

By daybreak, lines of people waited restlessly as a front-loader tore chunks of concrete from a border wall. Hundreds of cars streamed toward Rafah, unloading occupants, who then jumped over.

Others returned, carrying bags of food and cans of fuel. Two men tottered under the weight of mattresses they balanced on their backs. A small boy, dragging a sack, tried to keep up.

( Ouch. I’m glad I didn’t see a picture of that. Too heartbreaking.)

John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency in Gaza, called the exodus "the desperate acts of a desperate people. Everything needed for the sustainment of life here is in short supply or has run out. We've run out of terms ourselves to describe how miserable and desperate the situation is. This is yet another manifestation of people's determination to break free from this shackle they're under.”

It is the first time since June when people have been able to come and go as they please across the border. There are no border controls whatsoever, no passport control.

Hamas authorities carried out spot searches of goods carried by Palestinians, arresting two people for possessing large quantities of hashish.

Some Palestinians left Gaza with no plans to return. One man said he hoped to get his son all the way to Cairo and on a plane for Morocco, where he has enrolled in a university, but has been unable to leave the territory.

(Many Palestinians have wanted toleave Gaza and return to their homes in various countries, but the Jews haven't let anyone out since Hamas kicked Fatah out of Gaza in June 2007.)

Cuntoleeza Rice blamed Hamas for all the problems.

Zionist News Network

More from Rafah...

I don’t think that the driver of the bulldozer was a Palestinian Abdul… This driver was too confident. I watched his every move and the Egyptian guards didn’t seem to have a single objection. He removed the barbed wire from a lot of places and he destroyed a few concrete walls that weren’t really too high… about a meter and definitely not more than a meter and a half.
Rafah and Al Arish don’t have a tin of corned beef left, but every body is very happy be it on the Egyptian or Palestinian side. On the Egyptian side the Rafah and Arish inhabitants are often traders that have lived on trading supplied into Gaza. Gaza has been under siege for very long; it just under a 100% blockade of everything. The Rafah and Arish inhabitants as well as many Palestinians have made a living of trading supplies and materials needed for daily life… The tunnel that Israel is making a fuss about are actually mainly used by those traders. 1.5 million people need to be kept alive and this doesn’t happen through a ‘miracle’ from God. Now we wait for the Israeli reaction.

Thanks for your comment

The opening of the Rafah border for the Pilgrims was completely different. A detailed name list of all the pilgrims to pass through had been provided to Egypt. The PA and Israel didn’t want to let them through in order basically not to legitimize Hamas… but Egypt knew in detail who was to come through the border. Had there been a name of someone Egypt would have rather not let through due to security reasons, Egypt had that option.

In yesterday’s opening of the border, Egypt didn’t have a single name. Egypt saw hundreds or thousands of Palestinians standing… some with their old and sick parents in need to cross for treatment… others wanting to cross for supplies. It is said that from 350,000.00 to half a million Palestinians crossed yesterday. Egypt just opened the border without stopping anyone and without having the names of those crossing in. That is not usually how borders are crossed… not to mention that Israelis label every inhabitant of Gaza over the age of 13 as a “terrorist”. Egyptian forces clearly had order to let every body in without interfering and Hamas was making sure that no one had weapons. Who knows how Israel will play this. Maybe Egypt will be labeled now as a “sponsor of terror”:) Maybe Sinai will be labeled as a hub for “terrorists”… and the US/Zionist regime will try again to place "international 'peace' forces"... and we all know how the Israelis have been targeting Sinai and Egypt for various reasons.

Well, the coming days will be interesting...

Can you see that steal wall??? Look at the furthest person standing on its top to get a sense of its size... and that wall came down and was all trampled on! I can't tell how fantastic it looks when you see a wide angle picture of a huge portion that huge wall lying dead on the ground...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8163F8B7-B542-4A50-93DF-265B9D13C...

Q&A: The Rafah border breach

Palestinians walk atop the remains of Gaza's border wall with Egypt [AFP]

On January 22, Egypt, a close ally of the US, and bound by a peace treaty with Israel, unilaterally opened the Rafah border crossing, defying both countries, and effectively breaking an Israeli siege of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

We answer here some of the questions that arise from the issue:

Why did Cairo decide to let Palestinians enter Egypt from Gaza?

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, said he had ordered his troops to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt from the Gaza Strip because they were starving.

Mubarak said that when the Palestinians forced their way through, he told his men to let them in, to buy food before escorting them out.

But humanitarian aid may not be the sole reason for Egypt to open the Rafah border point without a prior consultation with Israel or the European monitors, who according to agreements, are supposed to be present at the crossing.

To begin with, Egypt has always been keen to control it eastern borders and to maintain good ties with the powers that rule Gaza. Cairo has been walking a tight rope ever since the Hamas took over of Gaza, trying to balance its recognition of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah while maintaining bridges with the Islamic Resistance in the strip.

Is Cairo jeopardising its relations with the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the US by unilaterally opening the Rafah crossing point?

Egypt has been ill at ease with the PA's lack of co-ordination with Cairo regarding official contacts and negotiations with Israel and the US.

Therefore, its decision to open the borders is also a message to the PA in Ramallah that has been unable to help besieged Gaza.

Cairo has always maintained influence on and affinity with the Gaza Strip, which was under its rule until the 1967 war. By extending help to Gaza, it wants to reassert its historical influence and role in the strip.

The Egyptian decision is also seen as a response to recent accusations by Israel that Cairo has failed in tightening its borders, thus allowing smuggling of arms and money to the Hamas movement. The accusations, endorsed by the pro-Israeli–lobby in Washington, had prompted the US congress to withhold $100m in aid until the border "problems" and other issues are sorted out.

Cairo, it seems, is drawing the line: It cannot afford to leave it to the US and Israel to decide the fate of such an important geographically close neighbour as the Gaza Strip. Cairo has effectively declared that the fate of Gaza is part of its strategic interests and will not be left to Israel to decide.

Furthermore, the move could also help Cairo buttress repeated demands, rejected by Israel and the US, to let it deploy more troops on the eastern border.

Is there an agreement between Hamas and the Egyptian government over opening the crossing?

A senior Hamas official said there was no prior agreement with Egypt. He said that it was a "unilateral move" in response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

But the situation on the ground suggests that there is at least an understanding between the Egyptian government and the Hamas leadership. Such an understanding is crucial to ensure a smooth flow of movement. Journalists at the border reported that they, and the Gazans crossing, were being checked by both Egyptian and the Hamas security forces. There is also an understanding to keep the Egyptian army away to prevent possible clashes with people crossing the border.

Previously, and according to the agreements signed with Israel, only Fatah–led PA security forces, were authorised to patrol the borders along with European Union monitors.

Israel has traditionally reserved the right to unilaterally open and close the crossings while Egypt had always co-ordinated with Tel Aviv. However, Cairo did take the bold move of opening the crossing, despite Israeli objections, to allow Palestinians returning from Hajj to go to their homes in Gaza.

The fact that Egypt defied US and Israeli pressures, and co-ordinated with Hamas, may signal a turning point: The move has recognised Hamas as the de facto ruler of Gaza.

For how long will the border continue to be open?

It appears that Egypt, pressures not withstanding, will keep the border open, allowing Gazans to purchase direly needed supplies, until Israel eases the siege. The point is to allow them to purchase supplies and return to the strip. Gazans are not allowed beyond the border town of Al Arish and can stay only for a day or two. Exceptions are made for those seeking medical help to travel beyond Al Arish and stay longer under strict Egyptian control.

Cairo's move is already creating more international pressure on Israel to lift or at least ease the blockade. A senior Hamas official said that the PA is being contacted in Ramallah to co-ordinate Palestinian control of the crossing. Israel is yet to agree to a resumption of PA security presence at the Rafah crossing. The Israeli media reported that the government holds reservations over the PA's ability to control "Hamas attempts to channel money and arms into the Gaza Strip".

For how long has the siege been in place?

Israel has maintained control of movement in and out of the Gaza Strip, even after its troops withdrew in 2005. It had frequently imposed restrictions, and even closures, on the strip over the years. However, Israel imposed a severe siege after Hamas won the parliamentary elections in January, 2006 and tightened it further following the Hamas military take over of the strip in June, 2007. It consequently declared Gaza an "enemy entity".

On January 18, Israel ordered a total shut down on the strip, preventing movements of civilians, including patients and medical supplies. It escalated its measures on January 20 when it cut off fuel. Such procedures led to the shutdown of the sole power plant in the strip two days ago. Faced with international pressure and condemnation, Israel has now allowed a limited supply of fuel into Gaza.

Source: Al Jazeera

Sorry about that. I only skimmed the first few paragraphs and assumed it was the same news I'd read about earlier in the month. I hadn't heard about this.

I've only just come online, so I'll read your blog again, go through AZ's comments, and check out the latest news.

Cheers, my friend.

Another wall bites the dust!!

This is a turning point, azrael was intent on starving the people to death, in order to make the survivors submit to the zionist regime.

Now for THE PRiZE: Egypt.

Will the Pharisees attack Pharaoh?

Just try to pick on more innocent civilians? Cowards!

Who is Ehud ?lmert?

Thank You, Cherifa!

Why should this infuriate the Jews?

Isn't one of their long range plans for Gaza to force the Gazans to leave and migrate to the Sinai?

So wouldn't this be helpful to that end?

Of course, even if Israel did succeed in running the Palestinians out of Gaza into the Sinai, it would be shorlty thereafter that they would manufacture some excuse to invade the Sinai, since they are drooling over the thought of stealing--again--the Sinai oil fields.

The shitty little country will now be able to declare the incident an "act of terrorism" and deny the Gazans their right of return, in keeping with their longterm goal of ethnically cleansing the entire area in the name of Eretz Israel. I still haven't read much about this but Zionist Jews will seize any opportunity to kill/expel/eliminate the Arab population - while we in the west sit back and do fuck all.

Except pay for it, that is.

Okay folks 2 things here you need to be aware of:
1. the rockets that were fired into Israel were in retaliation for a missile/bomb the IDF dropped in Gaza hitting a hospital and killing/injuring many civilians including children. Of course you never heard this on the news.
2. The barrier was on Palestinian land and was erected by the Israeli's.

Or should I begin with the bomb which just hit a wedding close to the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza City , with 15 apartment buildings within the bomb’s target range? One woman was killed and 47 others were injured –mostly children and women who had been inside their homes or playing on the street!! Scenes of children injured, bleeding and crying just moments after they had been enjoying a wedding celebration in a Gaza wedding hall…a horrific sight likely to go without mention of that in most news sources.

The injured were evacuated to Al Shifa hospital, where it was then hard to find enough beds and blankets for them, with children crammed three to four on a bed due to overcrowding.

Of course you mention a very important point about Gaza. The Israelis have been wanting to get rid of the 1.5 million troublesome Palestinians for Ages. Rabin had even once mentioned how much he would have loved to just see Gaza sink. For the past 2 years Israelis have been cutting off Gaza from the West Bank and making sure that there was no connection between Gaza and the West Bank and thus no possibility for a Palestinian state to exist. You are right that Israel may be happy to wash its hands away from Gaza because also against Israeli claims, Israel is currently providing Gaza with nothing at all. I imagine that Egypt’s position is not that easy… because helping Gaza and providing with everything Israel has stopped providing it with would actually mean helping Israel achieve its ambition of getting rid of Gaza and forgetting the Palestinian state. So… whatever Egypt does or doesn’t do right now, it will be blamed either by the Palestinians or the Americans/Israelis. I guess that the coming period of time will be quite interesting…

Thanks for your comments