An Egyptian border guard was killed and 15 Palestinians injured today in clashes on the Gaza border after an international aid convoy was delayed entering the strip.
The sudden and rare outbreak of violence between Gazans and Egyptians signals growing frustration among Palestinians with Egypt's attempt to seal the border with an underground steel wall to cut off hundreds of smuggling tunnels.
At first, Egyptian security forces clashed with a pro-Palestinian convoy led by the British MP George Galloway which has spent the past month travelling from London to deliver 198 truckloads of aid and supplies to Gaza in a challenge to Israel's economic blockade of the strip. Several protesters and policemen were injured after clashes at el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza, where the trucks were waiting.
Later, there were large demonstrations by Palestinians just over the border inside Gaza. Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that won elections four years ago and controls Gaza, called for a protest over the delay of the Viva Palestina aid convoy, which quickly got out of hand. An Egyptian border guard on a watchtower was shot dead and nine others were injured by stones. Shots were also reported from the Egyptian side of the border. Several Palestinians were seriously injured.
Ehab Ghussein, a Hamas spokesman, said frustration about Egypt's new underground wall was fuelling the protests. "There was anger, and that's because of what happened, especially about the wall and [Egypt preventing entry of] the people who are coming to stand with us," he said.
Israel's strict blockade of Gaza, which has been in place for more than two years, prevents all exports and limits imports to a few humanitarian items. Egypt has also kept its one border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, largely closed. Egyptian officials told the convoy some of their trucks could not pass through Rafah, but had to enter into southern Israel and then pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing into Gaza. There was no guarantee that the trucks would be allowed to enter the strip.
"We refused this," said Galloway. "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza."
Egypt has tried to curb a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past month after hundreds of foreigners tried to reach the Gaza border to mark the first anniversary of Israel's war in Gaza, in which nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Under pressure from the US and Israel, Egypt has started building a vast steel wall along its side of the Gaza border to prevent smuggling. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug by Palestinians reach into northern Egypt and supply Gaza with a wide range of products from food and clothing to animals and cars. Israel and the US have said they are concerned about weapons smuggling.