Hamas supporters gathering near the destroyed wall on the Gaza-Egypt border during a protest Friday calling for the end of a blockade on the Strip. (AP)
Last update - 08:14 26/04/2008
7,000 Hamas supporters rally at Gaza north, south borders
Thousands of Hamas supporters gathered Friday near Gaza's northern border with Israel and its southern border with Egypt, where they called for an end to the blockade imposed on the territory.
About 5,000 Hamas backers assembled Friday several hundred meters from the Erez border crossing into Israel. Another 2,000 gathered at the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Egypt sent hundreds of police officers to the sealed Rafah crossing to boost security and prevent any attempt by Palestinians to breach the frontier, security sources said.
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"The strengthening of security comes as a precautionary measure to prevent any operation by the Palestinian side to storm Egyptian territory," one of the sources said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
"Hundreds of policemen concentrated in Rafah and some armored vehicles were sent to inside the Rafah crossing and in front of its gate," the source added.
Gaza militants blasted open the border with Egypt in January in a move that allowed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to stream across the frontier at Rafah to stock up on food and fuel for 10 days before the frontier was resealed. Egypt wants to prevent a repeat of that incident.
Security sources put the number of police sent to the crossing on Friday at between 300 to 400, and identified them as officers already in Rafah who had been on standby to go to the border. The sources said there was no specific threat to the frontier.
The move came as Israel dismissed a proposal by Palestinian militant group Hamas for a six-month Gaza truce during which an embargo on the territory would be lifted, saying that the Gaza Islamists wanted to prepare for more fighting rather than peace.
The Hamas offer, issued on Thursday following talks with Egyptian mediators, departed from previous demands by the group that any ceasefire apply simultaneously in Hamas-run Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The Gaza Strip has been virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt since the violent Hamas takeover of the territory last June
