A stranded Palestinian died on the Egyptian border hours before the authorities started to transfer thousands of trapped people to the Gaza Strip through Israeli territories on Sunday.
Palestinian medical sources said that Ramdan al-Khatib, 43, died of cancer and had earlier received medical treatment in an Egyptian hospital.
He is among the 6,000 Palestinians stranded at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing since the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas) took over the Gaza Strip in mid June.
The transfer of the Palestinians back home comes after an agreement between Egypt and Israel, which stipulated that they would enter Israel via Aloja terminal and then enter the Gaza Strip through an Israel-Gaza crossing.
Israeli sources said the army took the needed steps to arrange entry of the Palestinians through the Israeli-Egyptian border and send them to the Gaza Strip by buses.
The first batch is made up of 100 patients, said Mua'wia Hassanin, director of the health ministry ambulance service, adding that the rest 627 patients would be brought in the coming days.
Hamas Islamists, blamed by President Mahmoud Abbas for causing the closure of Rafah crossing, opposes the way to end the suffering of the stranded people.
"Allowing entry through the Israeli passageway would be a new trap for the Palestinian people," says Mohammed al-Madhoun, an aide to Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of the sacked Hamas unity government.
"This would turn tens of Mujahdeen and fighters to hostages under the Israeli occupation," he said, demanding the reopening of Rafah crossing, which used to be run under supervision of the European Union monitors.
Source: Xinhua
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