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Gaza, 2008 Feb 11, Al-Manar
Egypt on Monday February 11 allowed 54 foreigners to leave the Gaza Strip where they had been trapped since the demolished border was resealed over a week ago, a security source said.
The group, which crossed via the divided town of Rafah, included a Bahraini humanitarian delegation headed by MP Nasser al-Fadallah as well as 35 Jordanians, two Americans, two Britons, a Kazakh national and a Ukrainian. The Bahraini delegation entered Gaza from Egypt on January 31 to bring aid after Palestinian resistance fighters destroyed sections of the border fence.
On Friday Fadallah said he had received permission to cross the border but that Egyptian security forces had barred the way at Rafah - the only formal gateway to Gaza not under Israeli control. The source said 300 Palestinians who had been stuck in Egypt were also allowed to cross back into the Gaza Strip on Monday.
On January 23 activists blew up and bulldozed parts of the border fence, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to pour across the border on a massive shopping spree after a nearly week-long lockdown on the territory.
       
Egyptian and Hamas-led forces resealed the border on February 3.
Since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June, Israel has cut the territory off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to pressure the Hamas government to halt rocket attacks on the occupied territories.
(Photo: Rafah Today)
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