RAFAH, EGYPT — The Egyptian government Saturday abandoned its sporadic efforts to seal off the Gaza Strip but tightened a cordon around this border city, restricting the availability of goods in order to dissuade Palestinians from flocking here to shop.
Police used armored personnel carriers to block roads leading deeper into Egypt from Rafah and turned back hundreds of Palestinians. Authorities instructed hoteliers in El Arish, 25 miles southwest of here, not to lodge Palestinian travelers. Some shops were ordered to close early.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza poured into Egypt for a fourth day to stock up on goods that have been scarce back home because of a months-old blockade imposed by Israel to retaliate for near-daily rocket fire by Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave.
Gaza militants set off the exodus Wednesday by knocking down parts of an 18-foot-high border fence, enabling Gazans to enter Egypt by climbing over a lower concrete barrier. On Friday, militants bulldozed openings in that barrier, letting hundreds of vehicles pass freely back and forth.
Here on the Egyptian side of Rafah, a city bisected by the border, Palestinians found food, fuel, construction materials and other items growing scarce Saturday. Prices on cleaning fluid and salted fish had doubled overnight. Police at the Suez Bridge, linking the Sinai to the rest of Egypt, were barring vehicles en route to resupply markets depleted by the Gazans' shopping spree.
Hundreds of riot-equipped border guards lined up shoulder to shoulder along the frontier for a second day but soon gave up the attempt to close it. Reluctant to use excessive force against surging and occasionally violent crowds, Egyptian authorities now hope that shortages of goods will eventually diminish the human flood to a trickle and make it easier to regain control.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned Saturday that his government's patience and hospitality were limited. He said 36 border guards and other security forces had been injured in clashes with the Gazans.
"These provocations cause us concern," he said after a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. "Our Palestinian brothers should note that the Egyptian decision to host them and ease their suffering should not result in threats to the lives of our sons in the Egyptian forces."
It was Egypt's strongest criticism of the Palestinian exodus and was clearly aimed at Hamas, which orchestrated the border breach.
