GAZA (PIC)– Taher Al-Nunu the spokesman for the caretaker government confirmed on Saturday night that the Egyptian authorities had allowed more than 2200 Gaza pilgrims aboard two ferries to disembark at the Nuweiba port as a prelude to transporting them to the Arish city near the Egyptian borderline with the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian authorities prepared shelters and camps for the pilgrims in Arish without yet knowing whether pilgrims will enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing or not especially since Egypt had insisted that they should enter through the Israeli controlled Karam Abu Salem crossing which will make many pilgrims vulnerable to Israeli arrests.
Nunu had announced Saturday that procedures would begin during the coming hours to end the crisis of pilgrims stranded at the Red Sea pointing out that it was a first step on the road to ending the suffering of Gaza pilgrims especially with the depletion of water and medicines.
The spokesman had also pointed out that the Egyptians showed an understanding of the situation of Gaza pilgrims after the caretaker government headed by premier Ismael Haneyya had conducted calls with Egypt in order to urge it to take procedures alleviating the pilgrims’ suffering.
He underlined that the Karam Abu Salem crossing is categorically rejected by the Gaza pilgrims the caretaker government and the Palestinian people. He furthermore charged the unconstitutional Fayyad’s government and some leaders in Ramallah with inciting Israel and the American administration to pressure the Egyptian leadership not to allow the pilgrims to return via the Rafah crossing.
For his part Dr. Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh the secretary general of the Cairo-based union of Arab doctors appealed to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally to end the crisis of Palestinian pilgrims returning from Makkah to the Gaza Strip and to allow them to return through the Rafah border crossing.
Abul Fotouh pointed out that the return of pilgrims through other crossings controlled by Israel would make them at risk of being arrested and entails all kinds of suffering the Palestinians are usually subjected to at the Israeli controlled crossings.
