JERUSALEM — Seizing a moment of opportunity, tens of thousands of Palestinians trapped for months in the Gaza Strip by a blockade and border closures poured into Egypt on Wednesday to replenish supplies and see relatives after militants blew open the border wall at the southern town of Rafah.
The surge across the frontier, which overwhelmed police, came nearly a week after Israel tightened a blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza in response to intense rocket fire by Palestinian militants, worsening shortages of fuel, electricity and other goods.
The border breach put Egypt and Israel, who have kept Gaza’s borders shut since Hamas seized control of the territory last June, in a quandary.
Israel said it expected Egypt “to solve the problem” and expressed concern that there could be an easier flow of arms and militants into Gaza. Cairo is under public pressure to help the Palestinians but fears a spillover of militant activity across its border.
The events also threatened to compound tensions between Egypt and Israel, whose relations were strained in recent weeks following Israeli accusations that Egypt was not doing enough to secure the border and to stop arms smuggling from its territory into the Gaza Strip.
Early Wednesday, a series of explosions set off by militants breached the 30-foot-high iron border wall built by the Israelis when they occupied Gaza. Thousands of people streamed over the toppled structure and through another blasted wall into the Egyptian side of Rafah, where border guards, greatly outnumbered, made no attempt to stop them.
“We have been dying a slow death because of the Israeli siege, and people had no choice but to break out and get what they need in Egypt,” said Salman Abdullah, 25, a truck driver from Rafah.
People crowded around gas stations, filling plastic containers with fuel. Others stocked up on cement, detergent, cooking oil and cigarettes, and some carried sheep and goats back across the border.
The items in demand are either scarce in Gaza or far cheaper in Egypt.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told reporters he had ordered his forces to allow the Palestinians in before escorting them out. “I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food, and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons,” he said.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said: “Egypt has no intention to repress the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians. If the Palestinians come out in these numbers . . . in response to a situation that is really deteriorating . . . then they can go ahead and shop all they want, and then they will go back to the Strip.”
But it was unclear how Egypt and Hamas security forces would re-establish control over the border with so many people flowing in both directions. A previous breakout in 2005 after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was stopped days later. But this time, public frustration levels are higher, there is extensive destruction to the border wall and Hamas is demanding that Egypt open the border to end Gaza’s isolation.
