GAZA CITY, 30 December 2007 — The deposed Palestinian government in Gaza said yesterday that it is conducting a serious contacts with the Egyptian side, the United Nations and the international Red Cross to secure the return of pilgrims who performed the Haj rituals in Makkah to their homes in the Gaza Strip.

Taher Al-Nunu, the spokesman of the government told reporters that the government is following with deep concern the difficult conditions experienced by pilgrims, remaining in the open sea is a real risk to them mainly the elderly, and called on the Egyptian government to open the border to stranded pilgrims.

Palestinian media reported yesterday that an old woman, Shafik Al-Bhisi who performed the Haj and stranded with the rest of pilgrims between the Jordan-Egypt borders died due to the hard conditions and the lack of medicine.

Al-Nunu called on Egypt to take its responsibility toward pilgrims and end their suffering immediately, stressing that the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem route is totally rejected by the pilgrims, the government and the Palestinian people.

He added that the pilgrims have the right to return via the same way they departed (referring to the Rafah crossing) and anywhere else will expose them to threats of Israeli occupation, blackmail and arrest.”

News reports said that the Egyptian authorities are demanding that the pilgrims re-enter the Gaza Strip via the Israel-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing, after accusations by Israeli that Egypt was not exercising proper control over the Rafah crossing which used to be controlled by Palestinian security and European Union observers.

After the Hamas movement took control over Gaza, the EU observers pulled out from the crossing and Israeli closed it. Later, the Rafah crossing was controlled by a small group affiliated to Hamas movement, the Popular Resistance Committees. But earlier in December, the Egyptian authorities relaxed the border and let 2,200 Gazan pilgrims to leave the Rafah border crossing in their way to Saudi Arabia for Haj.

This step triggered a wave of Israeli protests spread to the United State, what appeared to be a deal between the Hamas government of the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian government.

In Rafah city in the southern of the Gaza Strip, dozens of the Popular Resistance Committee supporters took to the streets and gathered in Al-Awda Square early yesterday morning and demanded for Egypt to let the pilgrims to return via Rafah crossing.

Dozens of militants fired into the air to express their anger against the Egyptian decision of preventing the pilgrims to return via Rafah crossing.

The Hamas movement also called for gathering to take place yesterday afternoon near the Rafah crossing to demand for the return of the Gazans pilgrims through Rafah crossing.

Rafah crossing is considered as the main border point that connects Gaza with the entire world. Israel imposed a total closure on Gaza after Hamas movement forcibly took over Gaza in the mid of June.

In the same context, Yahya Mosa, a Hamas lawmaker, demanded the Egyptian government to facilitate the return of pilgrims to Gaza and to activate this natural right for them, which is protected by all international laws and should not be a subject to any political enticements.

Yayah asked in a press conference yesterday “the Arab countries and Egypt in particular to shoulder the moral responsibility for the lives of thousands of pilgrims trapped in the sea whom threatened risks whether natural scarcity of food and threatened to security risks.”

He called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to take the “national responsibility” and to reject the “Zionist dictations.” He also accused President Mahmoud Abbas of, “complicity of the closure of the crossing,” and said that, “the government will bear full responsibility for the opening of the crossing from the Palestinian side, if the Egyptian government allowed the exit from the Egyptian side.”