Egyptian police opened fire on Palestinan women!

Egyptian riot police opened fire on palestinian women at Rafah crossing- enb




Angry Gazans storm Rafah crossing
Dozens of Palestinian protesters have stormed the Rafah border
crossing with Egypt, demanding that the frontier be opened to
ease the blockade imposed on the territory by Israel. Several protesters were wounded as Egyptian police opened fire in the air and used batons and water canons to push back
the protesters. The demonstrations on Tuesday came as Israel allowed a few
fuel trucks into Gaza, easing the punishing blockade of the Hamas-run territory. Rafah is the only border crossing out of the Gaza Strip that bypasses Israel.


Angry protesters complained that Gaza was under siege from both Israel and neighbouring Arabs.
Anger at Rafah Um Ahmad, a Palestinian woman demonstrating at the Rafah
crossing, told Al Jazeera: "The Arabs should be united with us and not against us. This is an appeal to all the Arabs.


They should help us lift the blockade, they should stand with us." The protesters managed to get into the crossing after police retreated from their positions in an attempt to contain the
crowd. Egypt called on Hamas to urge residents of the Gaza Strip to avoid further.


Hossam Zaki, the foreign ministry spokesman, expressed Egypt's "deep regret at the events witnessed at the Rafah border crossing." Egypt "asks those in control of the Gaza Strip to work to avoid the repetition of such a situation," he said. At least four Palestinians were wounded, medics said. Eleven Egyptian policemen were injured, including one from gunfire and the other 10 from rocks thrown at them. Humanitarian crisis Meanwhile, amid mounting international fears of a humanitarian crisis, two lorries carrying cooking gas and three with diesel for
generators passed through Israel's Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City, early on Tuesday morning.
*********************************
Gaza in darkness
*Israel normally supplies 60 per cent of the electricity for Gaza's
1.5 million inhabitants
*Gaza needs around 240 megawatt of electricity, but normally
receives only about 200 megawatts, with 8 per cent from Egypt
*Israel is the only source of industrial fuel for Gaza's power
station
*Israel stopped supplying industrial fuel supplies to Gaza on
January 19
*The EU pays Israel around $10m per month for Gaza's
industrial fuel
*Around 800,000 people in Gaza City and its surrounding areas
are now in darkness
**********************************
It marked the first time supplies had entered Gaza since late on Thursday, when Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the strip sealed off in response to rocket fire. Gaza City was plunged into darkness after its only power plant was shut down on Sunday, as fuel supplies dried up under the Israeli blockade. The director of Gaza power station on Tuesday said that he
was hoping to resume generating electricity within the coming hours.

"As soon as the necessary quantities of fuel oil arrive, we will restart the turbines," Rafiq Maliha told Al Jazeera. "We need at least four hours to do it."

The supply of fuel, however, is unpredictable.

"The problem we face right now is that we have no reserve. And since we have no reserve, we have no plan. Simply, if we receive sufficient fuel continuously, we will operate this plant.
But if the supply stops, we will not be able to manage our production."

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called on Israel to fully lift the blockade, calling a partial easing of the lockdown "insufficient".

"This is insufficient and we will continue our efforts to get a total lifting of the blockade," Abbas told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah after talks with Maxime Verhagen, the visiting Dutch foreign minister.

Abbas also renewed his criticism of rocket fire against Israel from Gaza.

"It is not the people who fire these rockets," Abbas said. "We have condemned these futile launchings in the past and we continue to do so. They must stop."

International concern

The impact of the blockade, which has left homes in the dark,
affected hospitals and caused sewage to flood the streets, has
sparked international condemnation.

The Iraqi parliament unanimously condemned Israeli raids and
its siege of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The parliament approved a draft law to provide Gazans with
aid, including food, medicine and oil in co-ordination with the
Arab League and the United Nations.

On Monday, the European Union accused Israel of the
"collective punishment" of Gaza's civilian population.
Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, a European parliament member, told
Al Jazeera: "What is happening there [in Gaza] is a major
catastrophe on very big scale and it is not enough just to lift the
blockade for a little while.

"I think the action of Israel against Gaza, which constitutes
collective punishment for the whole people of Gaza, is to be
deplored by the international community. We do not agree with
this kind of measures.

"I think the international community should make it absolutely
clear to the Israelis that if they wish the peace process to go
ahead, they should stop these tactics, which can only bring
catastrophe and perhaps an end to peace process."

The United Nations had warned that it would be forced to stop
distributing food aid to hundreds of thousands of people within
days if the lockdown continued.

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later
on Tuesday to discuss the situation following a request from
Arab states.

The Israeli defence minister had ordered the easing of the
blockade late on Monday. He gave permission for fuel
deliveries for the power station on Tuesday.

"This will be enough for an unspecified period, depending on the
needs of the Gaza Strip," a defence ministry spokesman told
AFP.

Medicine and "essential goods of a humanitarian nature" would
be trucked in on Wednesday, the spokesman added.

Aryeh Mekel, the foreign ministry spokesman, said the fuel
deliveries would total 2.2 million litres, which "should be enough
for the power plant to run for a week".

He said 50 truckloads of humanitarian aid would be allowed in,
carrying basic food and medicines. Thirteen of the trucks would
contain aid supplied by Jordan.

The easing of the blockade was welcomed by Khaled Meshaal,
Hamas leader, from his base in exile in Damascus.

Meshaal stressed however that the movement, which took
control of Gaza after a week of deadly clashes against rival
faction Fatah last June, remained committed to the armed
struggle against Israel.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies





Palestinian protesters storm into Egypt
Reuters - 54 minutes agoRAFAH, Egypt (Reuters)


Hundreds of Palestinian protesters stormed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to protest against an Israeli blockade, and an Egyptian policeman was shot and seriously injured, security and border sources said.
(Advertisement)Gunfire rang out as the protesters tried to push their way through the crossing from the Hamas-run territory, live footage from Egyptian state-run television showed.
The Egyptian police officer was evacuated to hospital in Ismailia on the other side of the Sinai peninsula. Medical sources there said he was in a serious condition.
Nine people were hurt by stone-throwing and in scuffles, security sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate word on any Palestinian casualties.
The protesters were demanding the reopening of the Rafah terminal, a mainly pedestrian crossing shut most of the time since June. They chanted slogans praising the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas group and its leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.
The Egyptian authorities later deployed hundreds of riot police to Rafah from Ismailia and the Suez Canal city of Port Said, along with armoured vehicles, the security sources said.
The gunfire came from the Palestinian side of the border, Egyptian security sources said. Witnesses at the border said Egyptian police had also fired rubber bullets in the air.
Hours earlier, about 50 women had managed to cross from Gaza to the Egyptian side of the border crossing as police fired water cannon to disperse about 400 protesters on the Palestinian side, security sources said.
Israel has no presence at Rafah although a U.S.-brokered deal between the Jewish state and the Palestinians says the crossing cannot be opened without Israeli consent.
BORDER SECURITY
Egyptian security sources said Hamas security men had entered the Egyptian side of the border with Egypt's consent to restore order and to take several hundred Palestinians back into Gaza.
Egypt beefed up border security on Monday with about 300 police officers as Palestinians demanded Rafah be opened for hospital patients a day after much of Gaza was plunged into darkness. Israel had blocked fuel supplies and sealed Gaza's border in what it said was a response to Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes.
Israel resumed fuel supplies to Gaza's main power plant on Tuesday, offering limited respite. The shipment included at least three days' worth of European Union-funded fuel.
Israel has said the Gaza privations were not reaching a crisis point and that its measures were a justified reaction to rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas and other groups.
Hamas opposes peace moves with Israel by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration condemned the closure as harmful to diplomacy.
The European Union and international agencies have denounced the closures as illegal "collective punishment" against Gaza's 1.5 million residents, many of whom depend on outside aid.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to lift the blockade against Palestinians in the coastal strip. Mubarak telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Monday to warn of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
BBC