The Siege of Gaza is Broken
By Stanley Heller, Counterpunch, 24 January 2008
The Palestinian people took their destiny in their own hands and smashed down the wall that divided Gaza from Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of people left their prison and walked into Egypt and bought up food, fuel and everything else in sight. It took great courage to do what they did. Just one day earlier desperate Palestinians trying to get to the Egyptian side of Rafah were met by club wielding Egyptian cops and water canon. It would not have been beyond the gangster Olmert-Barak regime to have massacred the people from the air. Yet when the wall came down the people came rushing out.
The Times (UK) said the Palestinian forces leading the Strip (Hamas) have secretly “been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches.” At midnight on the 23rd, seventeen bombs dropped the wall like Joshua at the battle of Jericho. Later a Caterpillar bulldozer widened the opening to provide access for automobiles. (What irony! Five year ago the Caterpillars in Rafah were used by Israel to murder Rachel Corrie) The UN estimates 350,000 Palestinians have gone across the border to buy food or to “breathe new air”. Egyptian Rafah was emptied of goods and some Palestinians drove on to El Arish some 45 km further inland.
[Read the report]