Tag: sinai

Thousands of Palestinians stuck in Sinai

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AP…

Sleeping in the sand and running out of money, thousands of Palestinians have been stranded in Egypt’s desert for more than a month since the border with Hamas-controlled Gaza has been closed.
Conditions in the frontier town were increasingly desperate yesterday, with one woman saying she was forced to sell her wedding ring to feed her family. Others complained authorities weren’t even providing blankets or other basic necessities.
The Rafah border terminal has been closed since June 9, the start of the final round of bloody factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas that led to the Islamic group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt said this week it had ruled out opening the border anytime soon, a move intended to put pressure on Hamas to resolve its conflict with Fatah.

Executions imminent after unfair trials

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Amnesty International:

Three men are facing imminent execution in Egypt. Muhammed Gayiz Sabbah, Usama ‘Abed al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi and Younis Muhammed Abu Gareer were convicted of terrorist offences after a grossly unfair trial.
The three were tried before the (Emergency) Supreme State Security Court in Ismailia in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Taba and elsewhere on the Sinai Peninsula in October 2004.
Amnesty International condemned these attacks, which left at least 34 people dead, and called on the Egyptian authorities to bring those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards and without recourse to the death penalty.
The men denied the charges, but the emergency court sentenced them to death in November 2006. Ten other people were convicted in connection with the bomb attacks and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
Muhammed Gayiz Sabbah, Usama ‘Abed al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi and Younis Muhammed Abu Gareer continue to be held on death row in separate cells in Liman Tora Prison and are allowed short family visits only once a month.