Word: rafah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This is inhumane," a man yells from a bus that is packed so tightly with people that limbs, heads, and torsos are pressed against the dirty windows. "I'm a German citizen," he calls out. "I have two children with me. They are dying." To the non-Palestinians at Rafah Crossing, "Come and see how the Palestinians live" was a popular refrain through the long, hot wait. Everyone wanted his or her name and story recorded; passports and documents were thrust in the face of a foreign journalist. "Record this," people asked with desperation...
...Rafah is one of only two operating entry/exit points for human traffic into Hamas-held Gaza - the other is Erez on the border with Israel. Gaza, home to an estimated 1.5 million people, has been under Israeli blockade since June, 2007, when Hamas forces routed loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel, the United States, and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. (Read "Behind Hamas' Own War on Terror...
Every one to two months, Egypt opens up Rafah for two or three consecutive days. During that period of time, a couple of thousand people cross in and out, according to Palestinian human rights monitor Al-Mezan, compared to the tens of thousands who traversed the crossing every month when it was operating regularly. According to a March 2009 report by Gisha, an Israeli rights group that tracks border activity, the sporadic openings at Rafah meet the travel needs of only 3% of Gaza's residents...
...Israel continues to exert substantial and indirect control over the possibility of opening Rafah Crossing and uses that control to exert pressure on the residents of Gaza, as part of a policy of collective punishment," the Gisha report says. Egypt, for its part, "which has the physical capacity to open Rafah Crossing," keeps it closed as the result of outside pressure and a desire to keep Islamist Hamas isolated from Egypt's own opposition groups. Indeed, the collusion between Egypt and Israel was evident on Tuesday. Aid convoys entering through Rafah Gate are diverted to Kerem Shalom to be subject...
Craig and Cindy Corrie, the parents of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, were also at Rafah Crossing that day, leading a delegation of nine Americans and one Canadian into Gaza to meet with local NGOs and attend the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Football Tournament. They spent two days phoning contacts in Cairo and negotiating with border officials before they were allowed to cross...