Egypt fights off Palestinian border protest
Egyptian border guards fired in the air and used clubs and water cannon to drive back hundreds of Palestinian women who surged across the border from Gaza today.
The women were demanding the frontier be opened for shipments of food and essential provisions, in short supply since Israel closed its borders with the coastal strip.
Eyewitnesses said 15 women injured in the scuffle with the Egyptians were taken from the Rafah border crossing by Palestinian ambulances.
They said several thousand women, carrying flags of the militant Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, demonstrated at the Palestinian side of the crossing.
When Hamas seized control of Gaza last June, Egypt joined Israel in severely restricting access to Gaza, largely keeping its border terminal closed.
