Desperate Gazans foil moves to seal Egypt border

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, Saturday (AFP) - Thousands of Gazans today poured into Egypt for a fourth day to stock up on supplies, taking advantage of holes blasted in the border wall by militants aiming to break a punishing Israeli blockade. For the first time, hundreds of vehicles crossed into Egyptian territory overnight after bulldozers gouged two new breaches in the wall as security forces failed to stem the human flow into the Sinai peninsula.

Egyptian police stood by powerless to intervene, having on Friday used electric batons and water cannon in a bid to herd Palestinians back into confinement in Gaza after setting a deadline for everyone to go home.“If only they would let us live, breathe a bit. Don't shut the border on us,” shouted Mariam al-Shal, a Palestinian woman from the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza.

“Egypt must leave us an opening to the world. We're dying in Gaza,” the woman said through the folds of her black veil. Fighting erupted at a petrol station on the Egyptian side of Rafah as stocks ran out, an AFP correspondent reported, with one petrol attendant hospitalised in a brawl with Palestinians and Egyptians desperate for fuel.

The owner of the petrol station refused to sell any more fuel, one of the most popular commodities to take back into the Gaza Strip, until security forces arrived to ensure order. Many of the cars waiting to be filled up had Palestinian licence plates. Five border guards and a Palestinian civilian were lightly injured on Friday when they were stoned by an angry crowd of Gazans running across the border after a bulldozer broke two new breaches in the wall, a security source said.

With Rafah's stocks of food, blankets and other basic essentials being rapidly depleted, security forces were barring goods vehicles laden with fresh supplies from crossing the Suez Canal on their way from Cairo to the town. The United Nations said at least 700,000 Gazans have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies since the heavy steel wall was blasted open on Tuesday -- nearly half the territory's population of 1.5 million. The Israeli army today said it had banned citizens from entering areas along the 100 kilometre-long (65-mile) frontier with Egypt, fearing attacks by Palestinian militants who had crossed into Egypt from Gaza.

The military closed tourist sites and hiking trails in areas east of the border and in a statement urged people not to get too close to those areas. On Friday the Israeli authorities closed the main road running along the desert border. The counter-terrorism headquarters also called on all Israelis in Sinai to return, citing fears of possible abduction by Palestinian militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government last week blocked fuel and aid shipments into Gaza amid violence in which 45 people, most of them militants, were killed in Israeli raids over the past 10 days. Israel says its blockade strategy and raids are aimed at halting militant rocket fire on its territory, with 10 people lightly wounded over as many days from a barrage of some 200 rockets or mortar rounds.

The Palestinians and human rights groups like Amnesty International say the blockade amounts to collective punishment. The UN Security Council on Friday again failed to reach a compromise deal that would call for an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza and to rocket strikes on the Jewish state as the Libyan envoy sought instructions from his capital.

Israel has progressively tightened restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza since June 2006, when militants from the territory seized an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid. He remains in captivity.