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August 11, 2008 Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting
PLC speaker, has appealed to Egypt to open the
Rafah border terminal between the Gaza Strip
and Egypt in a bid to save dozens of
Palestinian patients who are facing slow
death.
Bahar told a rally organized by Hamas at
the terminal on Sunday that Egypt had no
pretext left for retaining the terminal closed
at a time patients are falling victims on
daily basis.
He questioned the Arab and Islamic
resolutions that called for breaking the siege
on Gaza and described it as a "disaster area",
regretting the passive stands of the Arab
rulers and religious leaders of Al-Azhar in
Cairo toward the suffering of the Gaza
patients, six of whom died in a single day
only recently.
The continued siege on Gaza is due to its
insistence on national rights and constants
and its rejection of the international quartet
committee's conditions, Bahar said, stressing
that the PLC would continue to insist on the
Palestinian people's right of resisting
occupation and restoring rights.
He also expressed surprise at Egypt's
refusal to allow a delegation of the PLC to
cross the terminal on a tour of a number of
Arab countries to discuss a mechanism for
breaking the siege, and also regretted Cairo's
stand in blocking return of patients to Gaza
despite the fact that they had left the Strip
with Egyptian approval.
He stressed that Egypt has to allow 8,000
stranded Palestinians and patients to cross
the terminal.
Many of the participants in the rally
deplored the Egyptian stand and criticized
Cairo for delaying a decision to open the
crossing despite the elapse of one and a half
month on the calm agreement that was coupled
with an understanding to open the Rafah
terminal.
Egyptian authorities deployed 500 soldiers
at the Rafah border terminal to prevent
Palestinians from crossing it by force during
the rally.
Meanwhile, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman
in Gaza, said that the continued closure of
the crossing meant an actual involvement in
besieging Gaza.
He called on Egypt not to heed foreign
pressures that aim to foil the Palestinian
people's dream of living in dignity and
freedom.
For his part, Abdullah Al-Sinawai, the
chief editor of the Egyptian paper Al-Arabi,
criticized his country's continued closure of
the crossing, describing it as "submission to
Zio-American pressures".
He told Quds Press that the Egyptian masses
demand the opening of Rafah terminal before
people and goods, noting that the
American-Israeli pressures on Cairo prevented
it from responding to the popular demand.
Sinawi also denounced his country's support
for Fatah faction, saying that it weakened
efforts to end inter-Palestinian rift that is
mainly between Fatah and Hamas movements. |
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