Egypt Imposes Severe Restrictions on Recent Opening of Rafah Crossing

Democracy Now!'s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were one of the few teams of foreign journalists to witness the scene at the Rafah border.

File photo of Rafah Crosing

(GAZA) - DemocracyNow.org reports that the good news of Rafah Crossing opening was short lived:

Gaza: people are tired of waiting

In the Gaza Strip, the Hamas government has asked Egypt to drop restrictions on the Rafah border crossing, just days after the checkpoint opened last week.

In a major policy shift, Egypt's transition government had unsealed the Rafah border after years of closure under ousted Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

But less than a week later, Egypt imposed a cap of 400 people per day, turning back busloads of people that had been cleared for passage.

On Saturday, the border was sealed completely, causing angry Palestinians to storm the gates in protests.

Democracy Now!'s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were one of the few teams of foreign journalists to witness the scene at the Rafah border and they file this report from the Gaza Strip.

For the podcast, transcript and more Democracy Now! coverage of the situation in Gaza, visit http://www.democracynow.org/tags/israel