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Palestinian police storm Gaza-Egypt border
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-30 20:47
Palestinian policemen angry over the killing of a fellow
officer stormed the Gaza-Egypt border crossing Friday, firing in the air and
forcing European monitors to flee, Palestinian and European officials said.
A Palestinian man, right, looks through the
closed gate of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
Friday, Dec. 30, 2005. [AP] |
About 100 policemen stormed the Rafah compound and took up positions
alongside border patrol officers at the customs section of the crossing for
several hours, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.
The European observers 錕斤拷 responsible for monitoring the crossing and ensuring
the terms of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement are upheld 錕斤拷 fled the area,
officials said.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties.
Palestinian Police Chief Alaa Housni said the situation was later brought
under control, but the border would not likely be reopened Friday. He said
European monitors would return either Friday or Saturday.
It was not immediately clear how the incident was resolved.
A rash of kidnappings and armed takeovers of government institutions has
plunged the Gaza Strip into chaos in recent months, underscoring Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas' inability to control the area after Israel's withdrawal in
September. Abbas left Gaza on Thursday for a tour of the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces were going house-to-house in the Gaza
town of Khan Younis on Friday to search for a British aid worker and her
parents, who were abducted Wednesday by gunmen near the Rafah crossing.
At a news conference in Gaza, Housni threatened to use force to gain their
release.
"Those who have them have not yet made any demands and have not yet announced
who they are. These are enemies to the Palestinian people. We will get them. If
we have to use force we will," Housni said.
In similar incidents in the past, gunmen demanding jobs have released
hostages unharmed.
Also Friday, the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for a
suicide bombing in the West Bank that killed one soldier and two other
Palestinians. Members of the group announced on loudspeakers in the West Bank
village of Atil that their bomber, Sohieb Ibrahim Yassin, 19, had carried out
Thursday's attack.
The bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body after getting out of a
taxi that had been stopped at a roadblock just south of the town of Tulkarem. A
21-year-old army officer was killed, along with the bomber's accomplice and taxi
driver.
Islamic Jihad has carried out all six suicide bombings since Israel and the
Palestinians declared a cease-fire last February. Israel has been targeting
Islamic Jihad leaders in arrest raids in the West Bank and airstrikes in Gaza.
The policemen who stormed the border crossing were friends and family of an
officer who was killed Thursday in a family feud in Gaza, Palestinian security
officials said. They said no Palestinian officials would be allowed to leave
Gaza until the gunman responsible for the slaying was executed, according to
officials.
The policemen shut the border's main gate and fired in the air when a car
carrying an unidentified Palestinian official tried to enter the compound. The
chief Palestinian security officer at the crossing asked the policemen to leave,
but they refused.
The border was closed because according to the Israeli-Palestinian agreement
the crossing cannot operate if the European contingent is not present, said
Julio De La Guardia, spokesman for the European monitors.
Palestinians are frustrated over the increasing lawlessness in Gaza and the
West Bank, which could force Abbas to confront militias behind much of the
violence, especially as he heads toward a January parliamentary election. The
Hamas militant group poses a serious challenge to Abbas' ruling Fatah movement
in the vote.
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