Hundreds of Palestinians furious at being rounded up by Egyptian authorities following deadly clashes at the border with Gaza set fire to a government building on Tuesday, a security source said. “Egyptian authorities rounded up at least 500 Palestinians in the town of Rafah late Monday and took them to an administrative building,” after a Palestinian was shot dead in the border violence, the source told AFP. | “They set fire to the building, broke windows and destroyed furniture,” the source said, adding that the Palestinians would be allowed back into Gaza “once the arrangements are made.” |
“They set fire to the building, broke windows and destroyed furniture,” the source said, adding that the Palestinians would be allowed back into Gaza “once the arrangements are made.”
Another 1,500 Palestinians who live in other Arab countries and who need visas to leave Egypt have been taken to a youth hostel in Al-Arish, west of Rafah, until their papers are ready, the source said. The closure of the border, breached almost two weeks ago to allow Palestinians into Egypt to stock up on vital goods, sparked protests from the Palestinians, with a demonstration at the border turning violent late Monday with stone-throwing, exchanges of fire and tear gas. Gaza militants blew open the border between the impoverished coastal strip and Egypt early on January 23 in a bid to break a punishing Israeli blockade. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are estimated to have poured through the breached frontier before Egyptian and Hamas forces resealed it completely at the weekend. |