The echoes of Israel's war on Gaza reverberate over Egypt's Rafah border, Dina Ezzat reports "Here they are! They are hitting Gaza now. They start now! Here they are! Oh my God!" shouted Moufida, a middle-age resident of the Egyptian-Gaza border town of Rafah. Shocked by the sight of Israeli military attacks only a few kilometres away, Moufida has been having close encounters with Israeli aggression for close to three weeks. Moufida knows exactly what to do. "If we hear the noise of the [jet fighters] coming close, we know that they might be crossing the border as they have done a few times. Then we know that we have to leave the house until the fighting seems to end before we come back again," she explains. During the past three weeks, according to residents living next to the border with Gaza, Israeli planes have crossed several times into Egyptian skies. "They do not hit targets here. No. But they do cross and turn back. And when they do the noise of the planes shudders the windows and mirrors," says Hassan, also a resident on the Egyptian side of Rafah. Moufida, Hassan and other residents have been advised not to allow their children to play near their houses. They were told they could get hurt by shrapnel crossing the border. Already three Egyptian border guards were gravely wounded by the shrapnel crossing the border. One is in a very critical condition. Border guards and other security and civilian Egyptian officers stationed in Rafah say they are aware of the risk they are taking at the frontiers due to the Israeli war on Gaza. "The border zone is simply unsafe. We had to warn residents. We did not ask them to leave, because we know that this side of the border is not targeted, but we cannot guarantee the scope of shrapnel reach," commented a security officer in Egyptian Rafah who asked for his name to be withheld. According to this officer, some residents very close to the border chose to "leave for a while". "That was their choice," said the officer. According to residents, many families "got too afraid". "When the noise is near and when we see the fire and fumes in the sky and hear the blasts pounding, we do get scared. The children start to cry and we have to take them away for a while until they calm down," says Moufida. She adds: "But we have to thank the Almighty. What we have to put up with is nothing compared to what those poor [people of Gaza] go through. God help them." Moufida has clear recollections of the days when Sinai was under the Israeli occupation. She remembers "these harsh times" well. Because she remembers, she sympathises with Palestinians deeply and wonders if "one day they will know liberty". Hassan is younger. He recalls the days when Palestinian refugees left their camps in Rafah to go to Gaza in the wake of the Oslo Accords. "They lived here at the Canada Refugee Camp, and when they left they thought it would not be long before they got liberty, but it has been years and they are still occupied and being killed," Hassan laments, staring across the border. When Egypt signed its peace treaty with Israel in 1979, security control of the border between "Egyptian" and "Palestinian" Rafah was shared between the two -- Egypt as a sovereign state and Israel as an occupying power. In 1994, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was formed and it shared with Israel responsibility for border management. In 2005, as former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon redeployed the Israeli occupation army out of Gaza, Israel and the PA signed an agreement under US brokerage to allow EU monitors to oversee the Palestinian side of Rafah in cooperation with Egypt on the other side. The agreement in practice never ran smooth. Israeli authorities often denied EU monitors access to their positions due to alleged security risks. In June 2007, when Hamas asserted its control of Gaza, EU monitors left along with PA security and civil personnel. Egypt thereafter consistently declined to open the border absent the PA and EU monitors. For its part, Hamas insisted that the return of PA personnel and EU monitors be conditional on a new agreement that excludes Israel having a role in the management of the border. Since that date, Rafah Crossing has been more or less closed. The one exception was the massive inundation of Gaza residents through Rafah and the neighbouring Salaheddine Gate in January 2008, following the deliberate breaching of the border by Palestinian militants aiming to bring relief to a population suffocated by the inhumane Israeli siege imposed on Gaza. In a few weeks, Palestinians went back and Egypt rebuilt and fortified the border. An enhanced security presence became routine. This week, the level of border security was pushed up further. Armed riot police is dotting the Egyptian border of the 14 kilometre long Philadelphi Corridor that separates Egyptian territories and the Gaza Strip. Barricades are visibly stationed. The passage of individuals to areas close to the border is confined to residents or permitted guests. Egyptian security officers stationed in Rafah say that they do not expect Palestinian residents to attempt to break through the border, not even to escape harsh Israeli military aggression. However, they add that there are no guarantees that if the war continues longer and becomes harsher civilians will not attempt to escape their entrapment. According to a statement of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Monday, "In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of families have left their homes in neighbourhoods such as Jabalya, Beit Lahiya and Zeitoun in the north and in border areas in the south." The ICRC also said that: "more than 28,000 displaced people are currently in 36 UNRWA schools turned into temporary shelters". Gazan human rights groups put the number of the displaced at 90,000. Today, the Israeli war on Gaza nears entering its fourth week, leaving close to 1,000 killed and nearly 4,400 wounded -- over 50 per cent of those are women and children. Egypt, however, insists that the Rafah Crossing is open to serve urgent humanitarian purposes. "We are trying very hard to allow as much humanitarian assistance in as possible, but it is not easy because this crossing point is designed to serve the transfer of individuals, not commodities," said an Egyptian official as he gave the green light for the passage of tons of relief and medical materials with European, Egyptian and Turkish labels. According to this official, "tons and tons" of aid has been allowed in to Gaza over the past three weeks. But, he adds, what is "crucially important is that hundreds of badly wounded Palestinians were allowed into Egypt for medical treatment". "I am hopeful that they can spare his life here in Egypt, but I am not sure. He is in a very bad condition," said Ayyad, a 35-year-old Palestinian who arrived to the Egyptian side of Rafah Monday afternoon in a Palestinian ambulance carrying his brother Mahmoud. According to the account of Ayyad, Mahmoud and his cousin Hussein were leaving their house in the north of Gaza to try and find groceries "when an Israeli plane started to pound it with missiles". Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC office in Gaza, stated Monday that, "people who dare to go out rush to supermarkets to try to buy as much food as possible in anticipation of further and more intense fighting in the coming days." Mahmoud and Hussein were trying to do exactly that Saturday. Hussein died instantly. Mahmoud was still alive Monday, but according to medical doctors onsite in Rafah, it did not look likely that he would make it. "Most of the wounded who come here are in a very bad condition. Some are on the verge of death and some are doomed to live with permanent physical handicaps," said a doctor who was helping with the transfer of the wounded. According to this doctor, many of those wounded who come for treatment in Egypt are likely to spend the rest of their lives blind or confined to wheel chairs. "And I am talking about the lucky ones, who can survive," she added. Doctors who have helped hundreds of Palestinians wounded during the past three weeks share one experience: they have seen wounds until now unheard of. One of these doctors ventured that the kinds of wounds, burns and infections that he has witnessed suggest the possible use of internationally prohibited weapons. Amer, the driver of a Palestinian ambulance who carried Mahmoud for medical treatment in Egypt, is convinced that what he has seen in this war is "unprecedented". Amer has been driving ambulances in Gaza for close to 30 years. He is familiar with the victims of Israeli military brutality. This time, however, "their bodies are completely burnt and their legs fall off." On Wednesday Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit directly accused Israel of using white phosphorous in its war on Gaza. "This is a scandal that has to come to an end, Mr Secretary-General," he said addressing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon during a joint press conference in Cairo. The ICRC mission in Gaza reports that "many people are coming in with multiple injuries and the number of amputations is on the rise." According to Zeyad, a Palestinian doctor who helped an older lady with brain haemorrhage find her way to Egypt, Gaza hospitals are critically short on the medical equipment to properly diagnose, much less treat, the exceptional injuries. "We have patients on the floors and sharing respiratory machines. The situation in our hospitals is very tough. Very, very tough," Zeyad said. Medical equipment and materials are urgently needed for Gaza's hospitals, Amer and Zeyad underlined. This week, the ICRC reported that, "most hospitals in [Gaza] continue to run on emergency generators 24 hours a day to keep life-saving equipment operating without interruption." "I want to go to Gaza to help the doctors there. I am not affiliated to [any organisation]. I just wrote a few e-mails to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and I have all the documents signed, but I just hope that they let me through," said Mohamed, an Egyptian doctor in his late 20s. Mohamed said that he was moved by the horrors he has seen on TV every night. He felt he must do something. "I felt it was my duty as a doctor to reach out to those wounded in Gaza. If I cannot fight Israel to end its aggression then at least I can provide medical assistance to Palestinians who are bombarded day and night," he added. Egyptian authorities are cagey. "It is not that easy," commented one officer stationed at the Rafah Crossing. "We do not let people just pass through into a war zone. Doctors are allowed to pass upon security coordination with the Israeli side to make sure that they would safely make it to their destinations and not get bombarded. We have let in a few doctors and we can help some more to pass, but it has to be carefully coordinated," he added. On Monday, Egyptian authorities managed to allow for the passage of 25 ambulances to help transfer wounded Palestinians. "Palestinians do not have enough ambulances and we thought by helping to transfer the wounded faster we can give them a better chance to survive," commented one doctor who was allowed to enter Gaza to help provide emergency care onsite. According to this doctor, Egyptian authorities say they had wanted to allow more doctors in, but it "was not possible due to the lack of cooperation on the Israeli side". "Every now and then we hear threats that the humanitarian corridor that we are allowed, to let in the humanitarian relief and take the wounded out, could be blocked. The Israeli threats are endless and we have to put up with them just to allow the wounded a passage into Egypt," commented an officer at the Rafah Crossing. According to this officer, it took over 15 hours of contact to let the 25 ambulances in and out on Monday. "It was a nightmare," he added. When the ambulances came back it was another nightmare. The wounded they transported were fighting for their lives. "The wounded cannot wait. Doctors and medical equipment have to be allowed into Gaza promptly," said Dimitrios Mogine, a Greek medical doctor who arrived in Egypt along with a group of Greek, French and Irish doctors and nurses to volunteer in Gazan hospitals. "Some cases are spared only if offered immediate medical care, but to force the injured to wait for a couple of days before they are taken into a properly equipped hospital is like forcing them to die of their injuries," Mogine said. Mogine was frustrated by his delayed entry into Gaza. He was convinced that having had the authorisation of his embassy in Egypt and having accepted in writing that his entry into Gaza is at his own responsibility, he should be let in. "Why do I have to wait here when Israel is blasting civilians who need my help and when Palestinian doctors are cracking under the load of work and lack of equipment -- not to mention the psychological pressure of the war," he asked. Mogine and his group of 10 other doctors and nurses were not the only foreigners awaiting entry into Gaza. A group of European journalists were also waiting there. Mostly freelancers, these journalists seemed convinced that they have a job to do inside Gaza, telling the world the full story of what is going on there and revealing, as they said, what Israel is trying to hide about its war. Egyptian authorities have not been finding it easy to let them in, despite their satisfactory paper work. In the words of one officer at the Rafah Crossing, "Israeli authorities threatened to block access to ambulances in and out of Gaza if we let foreign journalists in. We have to choose, and for us getting the relief material in and getting the wounded out is a top priority." According to a statement of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), security issues complicate the situation in Gaza and thwart medical relief efforts. The statement issued Sunday reported that MSF medical teams in Gaza face "major problems in obtaining access to the wounded". "The lull in fighting is not helping humanitarian aid workers to do their jobs, or patients to reach hospitals," the statement said. At Rafah, medical teams and security officers said that they were "trying very hard" to confront this problem: brief -- and at times unexpectedly interrupted -- humanitarian lulls and hundreds upon hundreds of wounded who need immediate, sophisticated medical attention.
