Palestinians

Masked gunmen used explosives to blow holes in the Gaza Strip's border fence early today, enabling thousands of Palestinians to pour into Egypt to buy food, fuel and other supplies that had been cut off because of an Israeli blockade, witnesses said. Egyptian and Palestinian border guards did not resist the mass crossing at the Rafah terminal.

The collapse of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday altered the region's political and security landscape as suddenly as it changed the fortunes of Palestinians who poured out of the enclave to stock up on goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade.

Egypt deployed hundreds of riot-equipped guards Friday to seal off the Gaza Strip, but abruptly withdrew them after defiant Palestinian militants bulldozed new breaches in a border fence. A surging Palestinian crowd that had been pushed away from Egyptian soil cheered as a yellow front-end loader, escorted by black-clad Hamas gunmen, punched through three sections of a concrete barrier topped by chain-link fencing.

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.

Malah abu Lashin lay in the intensive care unit of Nasser Children's Hospital here Sunday, her frail 20-month-old body attached to a ventilator, an oxygenator and an intravenous pump. The lifeline that kept those devices functioning was equally fragile: a tenuous flow of electricity from a generator with just enough diesel in the tank to last 10 hours. "If the power goes off, we can pump those machines by hand," said Anwar Sheikh Khalil, the hospital's director.

When the visitors flooded into town a week ago, taxi fares soared and Shaima Hassan had to walk an hour to get to work. She was one of many Egyptians who welcomed her "Palestinian brothers" from the nearby Gaza Strip, but now she just wants them to go home. "The first few days of their arrival, things were hard.

Hamas militants on Friday hauled away metal spikes that Egyptian soldiers had placed along sections of the Gaza-Egypt border, defying attempts to block movement of vehicles carrying blockade-weary residents of the Gaza Strip. Ever since the border fence was toppled Jan. 23 with a series of explosions, Hamas militants have thwarted several attempts by Egypt to reseal the frontier.

A group of retired Israeli generals has launched a campaign urging the army to remove West Bank roadblocks, warning on Wednesday that the travel restrictions sow Palestinian hatred of Israel and stymie the peace process. The 12 former top commanders say that the hundreds of checkpoints dotting the West Bank are excessive and that other military means can be used to prevent suicide bombings in Israel.

It was a festive night for the teenage squatters in this renegade hilltop camp. A rabbi was on his way, and they were cranking up a generator, stringing light bulbs and arranging benches, turning what had been a Palestinian family's barn into a synagogue. Suddenly the group fell silent. An Israeli soldier and a policeman had trudged up the slope and were demanding to know who was in charge. No one would tell them. After a few tense minutes, the uniformed intruders left.

Jewish settlers have established a new West Bank community and expanded an existing one, drawing a protest Wednesday from Palestinian leaders who say the activity is hindering peace talks with Israel. Israeli officials said both initiatives were illegal and undermined Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's pledge to President Bush and the Palestinians for a freeze on most settlement activity. But it was unclear whether Olmert's government would evict the 37 Jewish families involved.