Last update - 00:00 08/03/2007
Medics: 7 Palestinians hurt in crush as 5,000 flood Rafah crossing
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press
A crush of 5,000 Palestinians trying to get through the newly opened Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Thursday left an seven people wounded, Palestinian medics said.
Citing security threats, Israel allows the Rafah crossing - Gaza's only gateway to the outside world - to operate only sporadically, leading to massive crowds on the rare occasions it opens.
A 61-year-old man on his way to a medical checkup in Egypt also died of a heart attack outside the crossing, but the circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.
Some 5,000 people showed up at the crossing ahead of its opening Thursday, many sleeping there overnight. The crowd quickly became chaotic, the medics said.
Abdel Hadi Salama, who was traveling to Egypt to visit relatives, said the Palestinian security personnel at the crossing rapidly lost control of the crowds, who began pushing toward the terminal and throwing stones at the entrance gate. "Security men opened fire in the air," he said. Medics said two of the wounded were hit by gunfire.
"It's like the end of the world," Salama said, speaking by cell phone from inside the crossing terminal.
Jose Vericat, a spokesman for the European Union observers in charge of the crossing, said officials temporarily closed the terminal after the crush. "It was impossible for the Palestinian security personnel to keep control," Vericat said.
According to the EU observers, the Rafah crossing has only been open less than a fifth of the time since June 2006, when Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, sparking an Israeli offensive in Gaza. The fact that the crossing is usually closed leads to massive crowds on the rare occasions it opens.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005. The Rafah crossing is essentially the only way out of the crowded coastal strip for its 1.4 million residents.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian team told Israeli and foreign diplomats that Israel's handling of the Rafah border crossing hurt the public image of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his supporters.
In the four-way meeting among representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the United States and Europe held Wednesday morning, the Palestinian team, headed by senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat, protested Israel's policy not to allow continuous traffic through the crossing.
The Palestinian representatives promised to take care of security concerns relating to the crossing, such as placing security cameras.