The nine-day long closure, imposed by Israeli forces prior to their bloody siege of Rafah in which more than 45 Palestinians were killed, has affected Palestinians travelling both into and out of the Gaza Strip.
Breaking down
Upon receiving word that the border had been opened temporarily, frantic passengers - the sick, the pregnant, the young and the old - rushed to get on the few buses that would load them a few metres away to the Israeli side, one bus at a time, at a painstakingly slow pace, before the border closed again.
Many simply broke down in hysteria. "I can't take this any more ... please ... please let me through ... I just had an eye operation. I can barely see," wailed one woman as she fell down to the floor in tears.
Another woman, Umm Ramzi, sat alone, a distance from the clamour of the crowd, comforting her ailing son.
"He just had a stroke last week. He's very sick," she said.
Witnesses said several open-heart surgery patients had to be rescued by ambulances after suffering post-operative strokes on the border with little food and no health care......
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FAE3AC2A-0E7B-499B-9BF5-2C9D10E4A56F.htm
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