Palestinians Force Their Way Into Egypt

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Thousands of Palestinians surged across the breached Gaza-Egypt border for a third day Friday, carrying goats, cigarettes and furniture through holes in the steel wall and overwhelming the border guards of two nations that have been unable — or unwilling — to stop them.

The chaotic crossing began Wednesday, days after the last Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip, ending 38 years of occupation. Militants blew open gaps in the concrete-and-steel barrier along the border, and the crowds took over from there.

On Friday, Egyptian riot police formed human chains across several breaches and managed to turn back part of the flow, witnesses said, but thousands more simply walked around them through the dunes or waded along the beach where the wall ends at the Mediterranean.

Whole families crossed in both directions. Palestinians who had been trapped in Egypt for years carried luggage home; Gazans returned the same day with Egyptian-made televisions, cheap cigarettes and children they had sent ahead to meet relatives they had never seen.

"I have not seen my sister in 12 years," said a Rafah man escorting an elderly woman back toward Gaza. "I bought her a chicken for dinner. Today we are happy."

The border free-for-all has exposed the central question of Gaza's post-occupation future: who controls the crossings. Israel wants the Rafah terminal sealed until a monitoring arrangement is in place; the Palestinian Authority says it will run the border but concedes it cannot yet control it.

Israeli officials warned that the unmonitored flow could let weapons and militants into Gaza. Palestinian leaders called the warnings a pretext to keep the strip bottled up, noting that Egypt — not Israel — is responsible for the far side.

The Palestinian Authority promised to reseal the frontier by the weekend. "We understand the joy, but order must return," a spokesman said.

In the meantime, Rafah has become a festival. Vendors set up falafel stands at the breaches, taxi drivers offered shuttle service to the wall, and teenagers posed for pictures on top of the fallen slabs of steel.