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Order Begins to Return To Breached Gaza Border
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Following Wednesday's exuberant rush after the wall fell, order and routine started taking hold Thursday. Money-changers carrying Egyptian pounds appeared in Gaza, ready to serve Gazans eager to shop in Egypt for goods that have become scarce in the strip because of Israeli trade and travel restrictions. Private cars began ferrying shoppers from Gaza City to the border. Small boys stood at the broken concrete border walls with chairs and stepladders, charging one Israeli shekel, the currency most commonly used in the Palestinian territories, to those needing a boost to hoist themselves over the barricade.
At midday, tensions rose for a time on both sides of the border when Egyptian security forces moved in with riot shields, clubs and dogs to cut off the stream of people clambering over the wall into Egypt. Thick crowds massed at the border, anxiously watching the Egyptian guards. But a cheer went up when Palestinians realized the Egyptians were only clearing a traffic jam of donkey carts. "Go!" waiting men screamed, and hundreds stampeded across as one, running and leaping.
Most Gazans sense that their time of liberty is limited. Egypt has closed the border within days or weeks of earlier, smaller breaches.
In the Egyptian city of El Arish, 30 miles from the Gaza border, Egyptian authorities instructed hotels not to accept Gazan guests, but residents opened their guest rooms, basements and back yards to the Palestinians.
Late Wednesday, the first night of the wall's breach, dozens of young Palestinian men from Gaza gathered in front of the only bar in El Arish to celebrate. The Palestinians zipped their jackets against the cold and cuddled prized cans of beer in gloved hands. "There is not a single drop of beer back in Gaza," said Mohammed Amer, 28.
"We will spend the night in the open," Amer said. "But we don't mind. Spending the night here in the streets is much better than in our own houses back in Gaza."
Special correspondents Nora Younis in El Arish and Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
