Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asserted his country's resolve to support the Palestinians and their just cause on Thursday, a day after the Palestinians in sieged Gaza forcibly swarmed into Egypt via Rafah border crossing.
In a keynote speech at Police Day celebrations, Mubarak noted that Egypt is doing all it can to end the Palestinians' suffering, to lift Israel's collective punishment measures and to restore gas, electricity and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian president vowed not to sit by and watch starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza and deterioration of the Gaza situation to a humanitarian catastrophe.
However, he said that Egypt would not participate in inter-Palestinian conflicts and refused to be dragged into the attempts to fabricate crisis at Rafah crossing.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told Xinhua by phone that more than 300,000 Palestinians had entered the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing to buy food, fuel and other basic needs.
He said that the Egyptian security forces did not interfere with the Palestinians, but instead directed the traffic back to Gaza at the border.
As the hope to lift Gaza siege faded, Hamas militants on Wednesday blew up holes in the concrete wall separating southern Gaza and Egypt, which allowed the Palestinians in Gaza to enter Egypt to purchase necessities of life.
On the very day, President Mubarak ordered the Egyptian security forces at the Rafah crossing to allow the Palestinians to cross freely the terminal to buy their basic needs.
After the Rafah crossing was forcibly opened, Israel held Egypt responsible. "It is the responsibility for Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly, according to the signed agreements," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said.
Zaki, for his part, said that the siege was imposed by Israel, which resulted in the Palestinians' flow into Egypt due to difficult living conditions in Gaza.
Israel ordered the shut-down of all Gaza crossings in the wake of Hamas violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 and further tightened the siege recently in retaliation to ongoing makeshift rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants from Gaza against Israel.
Source:Xinhua
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