Global General
Tension between Hamas, Egypt flares as border clashes erupt
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-07 09:34
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RAFAH TOWN: Tension between Gaza Strip ruler Islamic Hamas movement and Egypt flared on Wednesday after clashes erupted between Hamas demonstrators and Egyptian security forces at southern Gaza border with Egypt.
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 A wounded Palestinians is carried away during a gunbattle near the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip January 6, 2010.[Xinhua]  |
Witnesses in Rafah town said dozens of Hamas demonstrators clashed with Egyptian security forces on Wednesday at the borderline area and they heard intensive gunfire at the area.
The violence erupted as Palestinian demonstrators hurled stones at the Egyptian forces guarding the borders and in return, the Egyptian soldiers opened fire to disperse the protesters.
Medics at Abu Yousef al-Najar Hospital in Rafah town said that at least seven Palestinians were injured, including six were lightly injured and another people is in serious conditions. It is unclear whether the wounded were hit by Egyptian fire or as a result of the stones thrown by their colleagues.
Egypt's Nile TV reported on Wednesday afternoon that an Egyptian soldier was killed in the clashes.
Gaza ruling Hamas movement organized the demonstration Wednesday morning near the borders against the Egyptian police who clashed in the Sinai desert city of el-Arish with members of an international aid convoy on Tuesday night.
Earlier media reports said Egyptian security forces clashed on Tuesday night in el-Arish with a pro-Palestinian convoy, led by the British MP George Galloway, which tried to deliver aid supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip.
The convoy of 198 trucks and more than 500 supporters left London a month ago, in hopes of entering Gaza from el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza.
Hamas police and security forces immediately arrived at the area, redeployed their members there and prevented demonstrators from throwing stones at the Egyptian forces.
The witnesses said that a status of calm has dominated the borderline area after the clashes
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 A Palestinian throws a stone at Egyptian soldiers during a gunbattle on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip January 6, 2010.[Xinhua]
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Tension between Hamas and Egypt has mounted recently after several media reports said that Egypt is constructing an underground steel barrier under the borderline to prevent Palestinian smuggling through underground tunnels over the past three years.
