When Hamas militants tore down part of a wall that was built on Tuesday that separated Egypt from the Palestinians several years ago, it had a huge impact on the global community who is watching the situation with some trepidation. The idea of putting up a wall to keep a border problem under control is not a new idea from an international perspective but it did set deep-seeded resentments between the people of both countries as well as Israel.
So pieces of the wall came down and the first thing the Palestinians did was go shopping as tens of thousands poured through the destroyed sections destroyed by the militants. The wall coming down was a result that Israel had pretty much halted shipping anything into Palestine, including diesel fuel to run Gaza’s energy plant in retaliation to rockets being fired from the Gaza strip. Hamas destroyed part of the wall in protest and the international community has criticized Israel who have stated the will relent in sending fuel for a week.
Thus far, the situation has been peaceful but the impact on Egypt’s Rafah is being questioned as Egyptian merchants raised prices to greet the demand of Palestinian shoppers. And the situation is being monitored with a watchful eye from both sides of the fence.
And on Thursday, more members of Hamas security forces were visible on the Gaza side, maintaining calm and doing random checks for weapons possibly being smuggled in for Fatah, the rival faction Hamas forced out of Gaza in June.
But neither group tried to stop the shoppers and businessmen restocking their wares in Egypt, nor did Hamas make any visible effort to control or tax the thousands of cigarettes coming into Gaza, let alone the televisions, generators, washing machines, milk, cheese, sheep, goats, cows, camels, diesel fuel and gasoline.
The New York Times article is here.
