Great Falls Tribune · 24 January 2008

CP-2008-013

Breakout from Gaza

Hole in fence leads to time of freedom

Associated Press, Rafah

Transcribed from the clipping

“RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — On foot, in cars and in donkey carts, tens of thousands of Gazans flooded into Egypt Wednesday through a border fence blown up by militants — puncturing a gaping hole in Israel’s airtight closure of the Gaza Strip… For ordinary Gazans, it was a day of joy and plenty. Osama Hassan, 25, said the border opening will enable him to marry his 17-year-old fiancee next week, because they were able to buy items they need to set up a household. He bought a special mattress for his injured back and she assembled kitchen supplies.… ‘Freedom is good. We need no border after today,’ said Mohammed Abu Ghazal, a 29-year-old out-of-work Gazan. Children bought soft drinks and chocolate, women scooped up cheese and cleaning products, and men stocked up on cigarettes — all expensive or simply unavailable in Gaza because of Israel’s shutdown of cargo crossings… Some brought in goats and chickens. Four Palestinians in wheelchairs were pushed over the border, where ambulances picked them up for treatment in Egypt.”

Photograph caption

A Palestinian in a wheelchair is helped back home to Rafah after traveling to Egypt for a day of medical treatment. Even physically disabled Palestinians moved across the border of Gaza to Egypt through a gap in a fence Wednesday.

Context added by this archive

A hole in a fence, and what people did with it: a mattress for an injured back, kitchen supplies, goats, chickens, cigarettes, and four people pushed across in wheelchairs to meet ambulances on the other side.

Cite this item

"Breakout from Gaza," Great Falls Tribune, 24 January 2008. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2008-013. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2008-013

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