Egypt quietly lets in 230 patients from Gaza

[Lithos]

JERUSALEM/GAZA, 12 March 2008 (IRIN) - Egypt has allowed over 200 Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip to make their way into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, according to Palestinian health officials.

...

Hamas said it struck a deal with Egypt and set criteria for who would be allowed out: those wounded by the Israeli military, cardiac patients in need of surgery and cancer patients heading for chemotherapy.

However, Fatah Health Ministry officials said it was their own leaders who reached the agreement with Egypt.

An official involved in the practical side of the transfers told IRIN that the authorities in Gaza and Fatah-controlled Ramallah in the West Bank cooperated to get the patients through. He noted that on 11 March movement stopped, as Egypt expressed certain reservations, but he hoped that within a few days patients would again be able to enter Egypt.

A senior aid worker for an international organisation working in Gaza said it was Egypt which initiated the transfers, possibly to garner respect among the Palestinians and Arabs in general.

...

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=28273

[subsuelo]

1. "possibly to garner respect among the Palestinians and Arabs in general"

Or, possibly, from possessing a sense of humanity in the face of people dying

[Vegasaurus]

2. It's about time

LEt's see the rest of the Arab nations lift a finger to help the Palestinians, instead of expelling them from their countries, or leaving them in squalid refugee camps.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Good!

[applegrove]

4. Thank gosh.