RAFAH, Egypt (AFP) – Egyptian guards shot dead one Palestinian and wounded another as hundreds stormed the buffer zone on the Gaza border amid scenes of mayhem just hours after Israeli troops pulled out, witnesses and medics said.
Members of the 750-strong force which Egypt is deploying to take over security at the frontier opened fire Mond after hundreds of Palestinians, including armed militants, swarmed into no-man”s land and dozens broke through the barbed wire on top of the border wall.
Nafez Attiyeh, 34, died of a bullet wound to the head, Palestinian medics said. A second Palestinian was hit in the thigh.
Witnesses said both were hit by Egyptian fire.
Earlier an AFP correspondent saw Egyptian guards make no move to intervene as hundreds of jubilant Palestinians poured into the buffer zone to try to take advantage of the Israeli departure to communicate with friends or relatives on the other side of the divided border town of Rafah.
Dozens were seen mounting the small concrete wall that marks the frontier before its barbed-wire top collapsed under the pressure, allowing crowds of youngsters to cross over to the Egyptian side.
"I”m elated, long live Hamas that freed us from the Israeli occupation," said Mohammed Sayed, an 18-year-old Palestinian man who hails from the impoverish Brazil refugee camp, as he hugged weeping relatives.
He was referring to the Islamic militant group that claims it drove Israeli troops out of Gaza after a 38-year presence.
"We came here to celebrate our freedom but we”re not intent on staying," said Hamas member Abu Abdelrahman, 30, who briefly crossed to the Egyptian side.
"The Israeli withdrawal marks, God willing, the first step towards the end of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Mohammed Dargham, a 22-year-old Palestinian man residing in Egypt, jumped over the fence in the other direction to go and visit relatives in the central Gaza town of Khan Yunis.
"I haven”t seen them in years. I am dying to embrace them again," he said with tears filling his eyes.
Until the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control and the town of Rafah, split in two on each side of the border, was home to both Egyptians and Palestinians who often intermarried.
Ibtisam Ahmed lifted her four-month old boy over the fence for Gaza relatives to see and hold him for the first time.
"I feel liberated today, I feel I have a country for the first time I can go back to. I always felt like a stranger in Egypt," the 18-year-old said.
Families could be seen embracing on both sides of the border as supplies such as cigarettes were hauled to the Palestinian side.
Dubbed the Philadelphi Corridor by the Israeli troops who cleared it during the five-year intifada to prevent arms smuggling from Egypt, the buffer zone had been a key bone of contention in the run-up to Israel”s withdrawal from Gaza at dawn on Monday.
Israel has voiced determination to continue monitoring all goods passing into Gaza from Egypt and only agreed to pull back from the buffer zone after Egypt agreed to deploy the 750 lightly armed police.
Egypt, whose relations with the Jewish state have improved markedly in recent months, deployed a first batch of police on Saturday and said it expects to have the full force in position by the end of the week.