EL-ARISH: Egypt sent reinforcements to the closed Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, a security official said on Friday, in a bid to prevent a repeat of mass border breaches two months ago.
Around 300 extra police were deployed in and around the crossing after around 1,000 people demonstrated on the Palestinian side to call on Egypt to open the crossing, the only one that bypasses Israel.
There is no direct threat today, but a call for a gathering, the official said on condition of anonymity, emphasizing the measure was purely preventive.
The crossing has been almost permanently closed since June 2006. Israel has imposed an economic blockade on the Gaza Strip since January in response to constant rocket fire from the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
On January 23, Hamas blew a hole in the border wall through which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded into the Egyptian side to replenish stocks depleted by the blockade.
The border was re-sealed on Feb.3.
A week later, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt would not tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from Gaza, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally. -AFP
