Palestinians go to town as border opens

[Scurrilous]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/palestinians-go-to-town-as-border-opens/2005/09/14/1126377376694.html?oneclick=true

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"OVER the past five years, Gaza's border with Egypt became a free-fire zone, a broad strip of bulldozed homes and tank-churned sand policed by machine-gun bullets from Israeli watchtowers.

The Israeli army's rule of engagement — exposed following the killing of a 12-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl in the zone last year — instructed troops to assume that anyone who entered the area was a terrorist and to shoot them dead.

But on Sunday night the soldiers left. And for the first time in years, the people of Gaza have been free to enter the zone, pass through gaps in the eight-metre concrete barrier and clamber across the low border wall that now marks their window on the world.

By Tuesday thousands of excited men, women and children were taking the opportunity to enjoy a few hours' release from what, for most, has long been considered a prison."

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"We will allow this for three days and then we will close the wall again," a Palestinian major said. "The people should have this freedom for a while."