AL-ARISH: Some 60 Palestinians, mostly Fatah loyalists who escaped Gaza Strip after Hamas seized of power, protested on Tuesday their living conditions in Egyptian army camps.
Egyptian police assert the men broke out of their camps located near the border town of El-Arish and Rafah at dawn and had to be re-captured, but the Palestinians deny the account.
Khamis Bakr, a Fatah member said that actually there was no breakout, the men were just protesting the six months they had spent living in tents by not returning to the camp that evening. The Palestinians are only confined to the tents at night.
The youth are frustrated and oppressed, Bakr said. They just spent few extra hours outside the camps and returned.
He said despite having entered the country legally, the Egyptian government is ignoring their demands for improved living conditions, especially with the advent of colder winter weather.
We didn t jump over the wire (border) and we didn t cross borders through tunnels – we came here in coordination between the Fatah movement and Egyptian government, he said.
We are asking to rent apartments and leave the tents which even dogs can t live in, Bakr said.
The Egyptian government, which backs Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, gave permission to many of Fatah loyalists to cross to Sinai after fleeing Gaza Strip in June, when their rival Hamas took power.
The Fatah fighters are divided into two camps, one in Rafah holding 85 people and the other in el-Arish with 58.
Since many of Fatah members are also wanted by Israel, they don t want to return to the West Bank via the Jewish state.
Bakr also said Hamas members were passing freely between Egypt and the Gaza Strip through a network of tunnels underneath the border. -AP
