Thousands Pour Over Bombed Gaza Border Wall

Blockaded Palestinians rush to Egypt for food, fuel, medicine
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 23, 2008 5:43 AM CST
Thousands Pour Over Bombed Gaza Border Wall
Palestinians destroy a border wall between Gaza Strip and Egypt at Rafah refugee camp in the southern of Gaza Strip, 23 January 2008. Hundreds of Gazans poured into Egypt on 23 January after militants set off at least five explosions along the walled-off border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, witnesses...   (Getty Images)

Tens of thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt today after a wall was blown up by militants, CNN reports. Egyptian border guards did not intervene as people rushed over the downed fence to buy food and fuel. An Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, in response to a rise in rocket attacks, is in its sixth day, and the territory's residents are struggling with shortages.

Residents near the border reported explosions overnight, and by daybreak a bulldozer was tearing the last of the wall away. The Egypt/Gaza border has been tense in recent days, with dozens injured in protests yesterday. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that the US has urged Israel to find a different way to punish Hamas to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. (More Gaza stories.)

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