ياشاسين آذربايجان - Long live Azerbaijan

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Close to 2000 Palestinian pilgrims returning from Mecca refused return to the Gaza Strip through an Israeli-controlled border crossing. The Gazan pilgrims have been at sea for more than 30 hours now waiting on two ships outside the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba after refusing

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Close to 2000 Palestinian pilgrims returning from Mecca refused return to the Gaza Strip through an Israeli-controlled border crossing.

The Gazan pilgrims have been at sea for more than 30 hours now waiting on two ships outside the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba after refusing to agree to return to the Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

The pilgrims are asking to return to the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian-Palestinian controlled Rafah crossing. Members of Hamas and other political factions will be seized on sight if they attempt to pass through an Israeli controlled checkpoint.

Khamis Najjar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) representing Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, was outraged at the impasse: “Does the world want to extradite us to Israel, to detain dozens of us?”

Israeli officials have said the Egyptians agreed to have the pilgrims use the Zionist regime crossing after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s recent visit to Egypt.

Israel claims that if the pilgrims are allowed to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is outside the Zionist regimes control, they might smuggle millions of dollars to Hamas.

Senior Palestinian officials dismissed Israel’s concerns, saying the Egyptians could search the pilgrims for smuggled cash.

“Israelis raise trivial issues and complicate things to cover up criticism over continued construction of settlements,” said Mohammed Sobeih, the Arab League’s undersecretary general.

The standoff angered Hamas, who said Egypt has a responsibility to bring the pilgrims back to Gaza as quickly as possible.

Some 7,000 people waving Palestinian and Hamas flags gathered on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt on Saturday and demanded the pilgrims be allowed to enter.

Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu said Saturday that 1,900 pilgrims were caught in limbo and urged Egypt “to urgently end their plight.”

The United States has backed the Zionist regime and protested the entrance of the pilgrims through Egypt-Palestine borders.press

, Voice of a Nation

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