Calm prevails along Egypt-Gaza border
The Egyptian-Gaza border appeared calm early today after three days of unhindered crossings by thousands of people.
Egyptian police allowed a few Palestinians to return to Gaza, but did not allow anyone to enter Egypt.
There were few signs of the 750 border guards who Egypt has promised to deploy along the Gaza border as part of an agreement with Israel ending its 38-year occupation of the Palestinian territory.
The heavily-armed guards, intended to prevent the smuggling of arms and crossing of militants, had been scheduled to deploy by 7am local time (5am Irish time) today.
“No deployment has taken place up to now, and no further information is available,” said an Egyptian military official at the border.
In Rafah, civilian Egyptian officials said they believed the guards had not deployed because they did not want to clash with the large numbers of people trying to cross in recent days.
However, pedestrian traffic appeared to be light early today.
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