RAFAH, EGYPT — With jets streaking overhead and explosions thundering in the distance, the Greek surgeon stood Sunday beside a stalled convoy carrying blood bags and syringes, hoping to slip through the black gate at the Egyptian border to reach the wounded in the Gaza Strip.
It was the second straight day that Mouzala Ioannis, five other physicians and a nurse from Doctors of Peace waited at the locked Rafah crossing amid eerie silence. Ioannis blamed the Egyptian government for holding up more than 25 trucks and SUVs filled with medical supplies donated by Greece, Turkey, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
"They lied to us," said Ioannis, leaning on a car as a border guard shuffled near the metal gate. "The Egyptians first told us the Palestinians didn't want our help, but that wasn't true because we were talking to the Palestinians. Then they told us it was a matter of national security. But this humanitarian aid needs to get in there now.
"These people need help. When you're dead, I can't help you as a doctor."
The city of Rafah has become a sand-blown choke point of frustration for doctors, tunnel diggers, merchants, drivers, egg sellers and gunrunners. With Israel's offensive against Hamas in its second week, Rafah, which had long provided Gaza's 1.5 million people with everything from diapers to rocket-propelled grenades, has been largely cut off from the Palestinian enclave. Humanitarian aid is trickling in, but Rafah symbolizes Egypt's political and emotional conflict in helping Palestinians while opposing their militant Hamas leaders.
Many Egyptians are angry at President Hosni Mubarak's government for keeping the Rafah crossing closed to all but wounded Palestinians. Israel's ground offensive has increased pressure on Mubarak, but Cairo has long opposed Hamas, fearing the group wants to reignite Islamic extremism in Egypt. Trade, medical aid, diplomacy and smuggling are now caught between Israeli tanks and Egyptian politics.
"I used to earn about $50,000 a month smuggling food, clothing and gasoline through the tunnels into Gaza," said a slight bearded man using the alias Abu Mohammed. "Since the Israeli airstrikes began, I've lost about $25,000. But Israel can't destroy the tunnels," which he said were 39 to 49 feet deep. Israeli missiles, he said, penetrate about 25 feet. "We can repair every one they damage within a month."
