Israel Allows Palestinians to FleeJanuary 03, 2009
Associated Press
EREZ CROSSING, Israel - Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza across its border on Friday, as its warplanes pressed on with a blistering seven-day offensive against Hamas.
The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine, echoing a U.N. warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged strip. The U.N. estimates that at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip were civilians.
Jawaher Hajji, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who was allowed to cross into Israel, said her uncle was one of them - killed while trying to pick up some medicine for her cancer-stricken father. She said her father died of his illness several days later.
"They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too," she said, at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of holding the people of Gaza hostage and said an end to violence would only be possible once Hamas halted its rocket fire against Israel. She said the United States continues to seek a "durable and sustainable" cease-fire.
Rest of article at:
http://www.military.com/news/article/israel-allows-palestinians-to-flee.html?col=1186032310810
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