Palestinian travelers gather at the Rafah crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on 17 May 2013. (Photo: AFP - Said Khatib)
Egyptian police angered by the kidnapping of seven colleagues by Islamist gunmen kept a crossing into the Gaza Strip closed again on Saturday, stranding hundreds of Palestinian travelers, witnesses said.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Hamas movement, which governs the Gaza Strip, criticized the Egyptian police action and said contacts were under way to resolve the standoff.
"There are promises to follow up on the matter, but in spite of these promises the suffering is still building up. We consider the continued closure of the crossing unjustified and incomprehensible," Sami Abu Zuhri told Al Jazeera television.
The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions.
Gunmen demanding the release of jailed Islamist militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai towns of al-Arish and Rafah. Three of those abducted had worked at the Rafah border crossing, locals said.
"We will not open the crossing until the kidnapped soldiers are freed and the interior minister arrives to listen to our demands so that these attacks on us are not repeated," one of the protesting policemen said on Saturday.
Hardline Islamist groups in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the overthrow of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 to launch attacks Egyptian security officials.
The protesting policemen called on President Mohammed Mursi to help free their colleagues.
The kidnappers have already released one policeman, security sources said. They had no word on the six remaining hostages.
(Reuters)
A spokesman for the Palestinian Hamas movement, which governs the Gaza Strip, criticized the Egyptian police action and said contacts were under way to resolve the standoff.
"There are promises to follow up on the matter, but in spite of these promises the suffering is still building up. We consider the continued closure of the crossing unjustified and incomprehensible," Sami Abu Zuhri told Al Jazeera television.
The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions.
Gunmen demanding the release of jailed Islamist militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai towns of al-Arish and Rafah. Three of those abducted had worked at the Rafah border crossing, locals said.
"We will not open the crossing until the kidnapped soldiers are freed and the interior minister arrives to listen to our demands so that these attacks on us are not repeated," one of the protesting policemen said on Saturday.
Hardline Islamist groups in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the overthrow of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 to launch attacks Egyptian security officials.
The protesting policemen called on President Mohammed Mursi to help free their colleagues.
The kidnappers have already released one policeman, security sources said. They had no word on the six remaining hostages.
(Reuters)
Uprooted Palestinian
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