The Center for Socialist Studies issued a statement regarding the situation in Gaza and the position of the Egyptian regime.
Tag: mubarak
Mubarak’s FM threatens to break the legs of Gazans
Rabin pioneered breaking the arms of the Palestinians as a policy to make them stop throwing rocks in the first intifada. Now Mubarak’s top diplomat is suggesting we break their legs instead.
From AFP:
Egypt said on Thursday it would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from the Gaza Strip, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally.
“Anyone who breaches the border will have their legs broken,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency on public television overnight.
Hamas defies Mubarak’s efforts to reseal Rafah border
From the Daily News Egypt:
Hamas hauled away metal spikes Egyptian soldiers placed at sections of the Gaza-Egypt border Friday, defying Egyptian attempts to reseal the breached frontier and curb the influx of Gazans.
Hamas blew open the border wall on Jan. 23, ending a seven-month blockade of the Gaza Strip that began after the Islamic group violently wrested control of the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been moving in and out of Egyptian border towns since, and in the meantime, Hamas bulldozers have pried open new gaps and blocked Egyptian efforts to narrow existing ones.
Early Friday, Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal spikes around various breaches to try to choke off the flow of vehicles through gaps in the 12-kilometer-long border. They also sent dozens of riot police to the area.
The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said his group would not allow the border to be resealed.
”The Palestinian people have many options,” Haniyeh was quoted as telling the pro-Hamas daily Palestine in an interview published Friday. He did not elaborate.
Shortly after, members of Hamas dragged away metal spikes that had been placed at the main breach. Egyptian soldiers, who have been avoiding confrontation with Hamas, removed the remaining obstacles there. Witnesses also reported that a Hamas bulldozer shoved aside spikes at a gap about 100 meters to the east.
Nora Younis was at the borders, she texted saying:
Hamas: people of palestine will not go back to cage. We broke the hand cuffs and will break the siege and open all crossings starting With rafah.