CAIRO: Clashes over a plot of land in the area of Al Sonbola led to the injury of four Bedouins, including one woman, from the Garadat tribe in Sinai Wednesday evening.
The inter-tribal dispute, which began with sticks and ended with gunfire, took place on the entrance of the town of Rafah near the border with Gaza.
The injured were taken to Al-Arish general hospital to be treated for their wounds. One man was shot while the others were treated for head wounds from being hit with sticks.
On Wednesday evening, shots were fired in front of the Sheikh Zowayed police station due to a dispute between smugglers in the Rafah area near the border. The shots were fired in the air.
A source from the area told Daily News Egypt that the smugglers were chasing a man called Fayez Aboul Toum and that the dispute was specifically over the vehicles used to transport goods to the border where they are smuggled into Gaza through underground tunnels.
Aboul Toum managed to flee unharmed and no one was injured during the shootout.
“Troubles of this sort are quite common in the area and they are usually settled later on, Democratic Front Party member in the area Mohamed El-Menei told Daily News Egypt, “there have been a lot of disputes because of the smuggling.
According to El-Menei, police are beginning to seize goods loaded on vehicles in the area to prevent them being smuggled across the border so trouble occurs when one vehicle is seized leading to disputes amongst the smugglers.
As the Gaza strip remains under a blockade for the better part of two years, the smuggling of goods in tunnels from Rafah maintains an all too important supply of needed goods to the impoverished strip, as well as a source of livelihood to people on the Egyptian side of the border.
