CAIRO: Residents of North Sinai continued their pleas to the government to meet their demands as they congregated in El-Agra near the Gaza-Rafah border on Monday. The main demands of the Bedouin population are the release of detainees arrested en masse indiscriminately over the past three years following terrorist bombings in Dahab, Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh. They also demanded the government revoke its decision to evacuate homes within 150 meters of the Gaza border. "The government is asleep, the people are making demands but currently there is no response, rather it seems that the government is lying low for now and observing, North Sinai Tagammu party member Ashraf El Hefny told Daily News Egypt. El Hefny added that "it is true that the government has not yet begun any evacuations, but they have also not made a final decision to not go through with it. This is causing concern among the residents of the area. According to El Hefny, 50 North Sinai detainees in Wadi Al Natroun prison have been on hunger strike since the beginning of the month to protest their unwarranted detainment. After the meeting of residents in El-Agra, a Bedouin representative Moussa El-Delh told reporters that a "clear answer is wanted from the government concerning the orders to evacuate the buildings. The decision to evacuate the buildings is an attempt to stem the rampant arms smuggling that takes place in tunnels built under the wall that divides Egypt and Gaza, now under the control of Hamas. North Sinai governor Ahmed Abdel-Hameed met local elders in Rafah last week to convince them to back down on a demonstration planned for the following day. The governor was successful in his task and asked for more time to address the residents' long-standing concerns, Tagammu party member and former parliamentary candidate Hussein El Qayem previously told Daily News Egypt. Residents of Rafah and the neighboring area of Maassura are also calling for justice in the case of the 15-year-old boy who was killed earlier this month in an anti-government demonstration. Ouda Mohammed Ouda Arafat, 15, died as a result of injuries sustained in a protest between Bedouins and police, which led to the injury of 15 others.
