Agence France-Presse RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Moin Shamallah grins as he sits up in the front of a Palestinian taxi at the Rafah border wearing a new suit held together with four safety pins. I m happy to leave, to be free in Egypt, he says. For two days, the Gaza Strip s only route to the outside world that bypasses Israel was open, providing a lifeline for 23-year-old student Shamallah and hundreds of other Palestinians suffocated by crisis, closures and violence. Gaza has been almost entirely closed by Israel after Gaza militants crept into Israel on June 25, killed two soldiers and abducted a third. The raid was claimed by three groups, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas party. The problems here are money and chaos. There is no economy. Only anarchy. The factions waste their time shooting each other for control of the Palestinian Authority, Shamallah says with a thin, tired voice. At the entrance to the terminal in the impoverished sands of southern Gaza, wait dozens of taxis and buses, full to bursting with pious Muslims en route to the Saudi city of Mecca to make pilgrimage during the holy month of Ramadan. Gaza! Gaza! Ten shekels ($2), shout out drivers, heckling for trade from travelers crossing from Egypt. Dollars, shekels, [Egyptian] pounds, shout illegal money changers as the competition blusters between young porters fighting to relieve travelers of suitcases and giant plastic sacks that pass for luggage. On Wednesday and Thursday, only pilgrims, students and those in need of medical treatment have been authorized to cross, but others come just the same to try their luck. I want to go to Al-Arish [in Egypt] to do a spot of business but they wouldn t let us through, complains Um Ali as would-be travelers swarm around the nearby passport control. I haven t left the Gaza Strip since April. I can t take the destruction, Israeli raids, trouble in the street any longer, she says. After talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice extracted limited pledges to ease restrictions on the Palestinians in a bid to bolster embattled Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Her spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Israel had agreed Rafah would open at regular intervals during the month of Ramadan. We are encouraged by this decision, the first step towards restoration of normal operations at the crossing, McCormack said. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D Alema hinted last month that the European Union may be forced to withdraw monitors deployed along the Egypt-Gaza border should the crossing remain closed. Inside the terminal, a bus of pilgrims sits waiting for authorization to cross over to Al-Arish where its occupants intend to fly to Saudi Arabia. I hope the situation will be better when we return in a month, says one pilgrim, fingering white prayer beads following two days of the deadliest intra-Palestinian gun battles since the Hamas government took office in March. But he flatly denies any question of fleeing when the tough gets going. We are not fleeing the country. We should be here when the problems break out. I am sure the internal clashes will put pressure on the leaders to form a national unity government, says the 23-year-old. Wael Zahab, spokesman for the presidential guard that is responsible for security on the Palestinian side of the crossing, is furious Israel has prevented the Rafah terminal from functioning properly for months. The Israelis are using Rafah as collective punishment after Gilad Shalit [the Israeli soldier] was captured, he says. They open and close at whim by preventing the Europeans from coming to do their work, he says. Rafah is our only window on the world and it has only been open around 20 days, since June 25.
