For all the excitement, very little has changed in the Gaza Strip <br><br> - Haaretz

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Mon., February 04, 2008 Shvat 28, 5768

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		A Palestinian girl stands behind barbed wire at Egypt border in southern Gaza Strip, Saturday. (AP)

Last update - 06:27 03/02/2008

For all the excitement, very little has changed in the Gaza Strip

By Catrin Ormestad

Tags: Egypt, Israel, Gaza, Hamas

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - There it is, a feeling of change.

Gasoline vendors with jerry cans are lining the streets of Gaza City, huddling in the rain, and pick-up trucks loaded with fuel canisters, Cleopatra cigarettes and sheep are returning from the border. Some of the cars roaming Gaza's roads have Egyptian license plates. Our driver Muhammad lighted another cigarette as we headed south. Before the border breach, he would make a pack last several days, but now cigarette prices have plummeted.

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he once crowded area by the Rafah border terminal, where the Palestinians used to wait for days and weeks and months in order to cross, is now deserted. Two Hamas border guards briefly glanced at my Palestinian companion's ID and let us pass, and we continued along the Philadelphi Road. Where Israel Defense Forces jeeps used to patrol before the disengagement, kids are now biking, and donkey carts are making their way back from the border.

"Welcome to Gaza!" an old man shouted. He, too, has been to Egypt to stock up, on pickled olives. The tall concrete wall has been knocked over and the iron barrier in Rafah's battered refugee camp lies crumpled in the yellow mud, like a huge, rusty folding fan. The desolate moonscape of bulldozed neighborhoods and bullet-riddled houses is now bustling with life and commerce, even on a cold and rainy day.

On Wednesday, one week after the border breach, thousands of Palestinians were still pouring into Egypt. Nobody asked for our passports as we crossed the border and went for a stroll in the Egyptian part of Rafah, enjoying a break in the downpour, as well as the elated, almost festive atmosphere. The entire town had been turned into a giant market, where anything was for sale, from Egyptian water buffaloes to brand-new Chinese motorcycles. Even though the prices had almost reached those in Gaza - a gallon of gasoline that cost NIS 15 in Egyptian Rafah cost NIS 18 across the border - the Palestinians were still in a shopping frenzy, mostly buying fuel, cigarettes and food items such as cheese, milk and livestock, perhaps spurred by the rumors of an imminent closing.

Egyptian border guards had begun to seal some of the crossings and were obviously trying to regain control of the passage. Policemen with riot-control gear were directing the traffic, but mainly creating chaos. The mood in Rafah was still unbridled, defiant. Some armored cars and buses were standing by, ready for a possible showdown. Cars and trucks were allowed to return to Gaza, but most of the vehicles moving in the opposite direction had to turn back - including our taxicab, when we tried to cross the border once more to visit a man from Gaza who had been reunited with his daughter in Rafah after 15 years of separation by the reviled border wall.

We parked the car and proceeded by foot in the heavy rain. At the sight of our umbrella being turned inside-out in the gale, the Hamas officer in charge of the Palestinian checkpoint relented and told us "yalla, go get your car!" But the Egyptian commander interfered and a quarrel erupted. The Palestinian was forced to yield, and we returned to Gaza, which suddenly looked bleaker than ever.

The border to Egypt is open, but Palestinians are still not able to travel abroad for work, studies or medical treatment. Cigarette prices may have plunged, but the cost of basic goods like sugar, rice and flour is soaring, and most gas stations are still closed. Jerry cans of gasoline, brought in on donkey carts, cannot compensate for the loss of the Israeli supply. The blackouts are still making life uncomfortable and the winter nights unbearable, and there is still no escape from the Israeli bombs and artillery shells.

Soon, the Israeli iron wall will be replaced by Egyptian barbed wire, cigarette prices will surge, and the only lasting memory of the days of freedom will be the graffiti on a wall in Rafah: "Egypt in the heart." Nothing has changed in Gaza.

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Egypt arrests 17 Palestinian militants in Sinai over weekend

Four Qassam rockets fired from Gaza strike the western Negev

Palestinian tries to sneak lion, monkey into Gaza from Sinai

IDF troops use computer simulation to train for Gaza op

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1.	Free Palestine	06:11	\|	Paul Fingerhut	03/02/08

2.	Israel is not "bombing" Gaza.	06:21	\|	idf_sergeant	03/02/08

3.	catrin you don`t get it. gaza could have been a prosporous state	06:26	\|	ralph	03/02/08

4.	this called responsible government/democracy. got what they voted	06:26	\|	ralph	03/02/08

5.	The Palestinians True Enemy Is Their Own Arab Brethren	06:53	\|	Norman F Birnberg	03/02/08

6.	Re: Free Palestine	06:57	\|	Norman F Birnberg	03/02/08

7.	Ain`t Rocket Fire Romantic?	07:34	\|	Softwalker	03/02/08

8.	great article	07:35	\|	peacelover	03/02/08

9.	to norman	08:38	\|	L	03/02/08

10.	Just because they overwhelmed the Egyptian forces...	09:12	\|	MaryRose	03/02/08

11.	Pals travel abroad to learn bomb making	09:54	\|	DanielL	03/02/08

12.	Hey, Haaretz, thanks for more anti-Israel propaganda	10:26	\|	McQueen	03/02/08

13.	Seal Gaza totally.	10:34	\|	Palestinian Brit	03/02/08

14.	Israel is not "bombing" Gaza	10:35	\|	Stephen	03/02/08

15.	Israel is not "bombing" Gaza	10:39	\|	Stephen	03/02/08

16.	I have the perfect solution	10:51	\|	Adrian de Klerk	03/02/08

17.	ONE side of the border contolled Hamas the other by Egypt.	11:03	\|	PETER SM	03/02/08

18.	SOMETHING MORE CREATIVE THAN WHAT GANDHI DID AGAINST BRITAIN	11:05	\|	indrajaya	03/02/08

19.	ralph # 3 liar	11:19	\|	Donnie	03/02/08

20.	PAL BRIT."SEAL Gaza totally" you call. To show up Israel???	11:20	\|	PETER SM	03/02/08

21.	Paul Fingerhut # 1	11:31	\|	ChanahS	03/02/08

22.	#1 - Moral narcisism rules in Santa Barbara	12:12	\|	Sick of moonbats	03/02/08

23.	To 1. Paul Fingerhut. Free Palestine or Free Israel ?	12:17	\|	Altalena	03/02/08

24.	# 15 Stephen......dishonesty is not good	14:17	\|	Lynn	03/02/08

25.	the author states, thousands are still not	15:32	\|	Lynn	03/02/08

26.	Pal Brit wants border sealed to Gaza?	15:34	\|	Lynn	03/02/08

27.	Islamists-send the retarded,young,elderly,pregnant to blow all up	15:39	\|	Sam	03/02/08

28.	Its the population growth , stupid	15:58	\|	arun	03/02/08

29.	#16 Adrian de Klerk	16:27	\|	Boycott	03/02/08

30.	She wrote, but did not add ....	16:40	\|	Shlomo	03/02/08

31.	5. dear norman f. "Arab brethren"	18:12	\|	bozhidar balkas	03/02/08

32.	If there was sanity	18:16	\|	Ron	03/02/08

33.	Altalena - both or neither	19:00	\|	Mark Lincoln	03/02/08

34.	the main change	19:25	\|	Daniel	03/02/08

35.	Now back to the business of stopping the rockets	22:16	\|	Jason	03/02/08

36.	The average literacy rate of Arabs living in Arab lands is 33%	22:36	\|	Caring Dude	03/02/08

37.	Ms. Ormstead, being from a homogenous society, (Sweden)	22:57	\|	Yoshka Pischer	03/02/08

38.	#2 idf_sergeant. You are building ghettos.	01:46	\|	Maureen Ann	04/02/08

39.	38 Many in the IDF have no moral conscience	03:01	\|	Dutch	04/02/08

40.	38 maureen ann`s GHETTO mind SATURATED with HYPOCRACY	03:22	\|	CK Tan	04/02/08

41.	Famous Quotes by the most Dangerous Defense Minister	05:03	\|	The Archives	04/02/08

42.	Nice to see you back online CK	05:06	\|	MaryRose	04/02/08

43.	ChanahS I think Paul`s problem...	05:18	\|	MaryRose	04/02/08

44.	Gaza as a modern getto	06:20	\|	Ibrahim Shvonce	04/02/08

45.	#42 MaryRose - thanks for the welcome :-)	06:27	\|	CK Tan	04/02/08

46.	#44 shvonce	08:00	\|	Donnie	04/02/08

47.	#45 CK Tan, Re glaring differences but similiarities	16:39	\|	dutch	04/02/08

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