Despair as Gazans lose link to outside world

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AFP) — Seventy-year-old Naim Ahjazi needs just a half-hour -- 45 minutes at most -- to run across the border to Egypt and pick up the desperately-needed farm supplies that he paid for last week.

But the Hamas gunmen standing guard at the frontier are not moved -- after nearly two weeks of unfettered access between Gaza and Egypt, the border is shut again.

"I paid for the supplies, but the shop was closed all day yesterday so I couldn't pick them up," says Ahjazi, his tanned face etched with despair and resignation as he looks over at the border just metres away.

"I told them that I just needed a half hour or 45 minutes to get the stuff that I paid for. But they said no because I don't have an Egyptian ID."

So the nearly 100 dollars...