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A Taste of Freedom
By Mohammed Omer, reporting from Rafah
27/01/08 "ICH"
-- - “I finally taste freedom now–at least
a temporary freedom of movement,” a 32 year old Gazan man
rejoiced, the Gaza-Egypt border newly opened. Thousands climbed
over Israel’s downed Wall, a Wall which encompasses and contains
the Gaza Strip. The hungry, assaulted, and ignored crowds
clamoured into Egypt to stock up on daily goods, basic foods,
and medical supplies.
In Rafah, crucial shipments of daily living necessities
including even packages of cement, spare auto and vital machine
parts and fuel, flowed from Egypt into Gaza across a border
rendered wide-open since Wednesday. Early Wednesday, militants
blew down portions of the concrete and steel wall, allowing
hundreds of thousands of Gazans, many caged-in for nearly 18
months, to stream into Egypt for shopping and a luxurious whiff
of freedom.
Egyptian border security guards initially simply stood by as
huge crowds surged into Egypt, but on Wednesday, they attempted
to ease the chaos of traffic, directing the countless
pedestrians, donkey carts and bicycles.
24 Hours Awake!
Rafah has been awake 24 hours a day lately, a new phenomenon:
usually by sunset people are home, hoping to avoid being
targeted by Israeli attacks. In a border town such as Rafah, in
southern Gaza, security is risky, to say the least, after
sundown. Yet now, masses –hundreds of thousands!!—of people
choose to go shopping even in the middle of the night. If not
shopping, then people meander to “breathe fresh air,” as one
young man replied, en route home with cheese and milk.
Israel declared it would not send emergency shipments of fuel
into Gaza on Thursday as it had initially promised earlier in
the week. The fuel is vital to running Gaza’s main power plant,
shut down last week after Israel imposed a complete closure on
Gaza in what Israel says was a response to the launching of
home-made rockets towards Israel.
With the newly-opened border, Israeli officials have said that
as long as Gazans are getting supplies through Egypt there is no
need for Israel to send shipments. This step is seen by people
around the world as Israel’s sneaky way of relinquishing
responsibility for 1.5 million Gazans, in a region which until
2005 Israel occupied, but which even now many contend Israel
continues to militarily occupy.
The spokesman of Hamas has denied involvement in having blasted
holes in the border. Hamas says, however, that it the prison
break is a ‘normal reaction’ from a population which has been
increasingly starving, dying, and destitute since Israel imposed
its blockade. The closures, which were tightened after Hamas
took control over Gaza last June 2007, have led to
internationally-recognized severe shortages of food supplies,
drinkable water, cement, fuel and electricity necessary for
medical and daily functions, as well as cigarettes and many
other basic things. Something as simple as candles has become an
impossible luxury in Gaza’s markets.
As I write now, Gaza rejoices, enjoying a moment of fresh air, a
brief, and unusual, respite, from the near-daily Israeli attacks
resulting in Gaza civilian bloodshed. But despite the joy from
the open border and the vital goods which can be bought in
Egypt, tragedy remains in Gaza: late Thursday night and early
Friday morning, Israeli warplanes killed four more Palestinians
in the on-going assault on Gaza which has seen 68 killed and
over 165 wounded in just the first weeks of January alone. Gaza,
as the world, watches with apprehension to see how Israel will
react to the act of basic human desperation and frustration
which led to breaking down the Wall last Wednesday.
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