Palestinians from Gaza fleeing to Egypt

Washington Times:

About 250 Palestinians, some with life-threatening illnesses, left the Gaza Strip yesterday in the first organized large-scale departure since the Islamist movement Hamas seized control.

They left on buses and on foot through the partially destroyed Erez crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel, even though their destination was Egypt.

Gaza's Arab neighbor has resisted pleas from Hamas to allow direct crossings — a policy that had led to increasingly strident rhetoric and to an angry demonstration Friday near the metal wall along the Egyptian border.

"I'm very angry that we're not allowed to cross straight into Egypt," Selma Abu Kouta said as she watched her son Mohamed, a leukemia sufferer, step onto a departing bus.

Mrs. Abu Kouta would not say whether the blame should lie with Hamas, the Egyptians, the Israelis or the Palestinian Authority. "It's not my business," she said.

Her family lives only minutes from the crossing into Egypt, which has been closed since mid-June, when Hamas swept aside the Palestinian Authority security troops who had administered the crossing.

Israel allowed Fatah members to flee into Israel immediately after the Hamas takeover in mid-June, but has since kept the border closed apart from some humanitarian cases.

Hamas in turn has rejected most Israeli offers to allow a limited flow of Gazans stranded in Egypt through an Israeli crossing point; it fears Israel would detain men on a "wanted" list as they entered Israel from Egypt.

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I guess the Palestinians can blame this on the lack of occupation of Gaza. While the numbers are small they reflect a growing trend of Palestinians leaving the territories and migrating elsewhere. This migration is counter to the demographic bomb argument that the Palestinians with their high birth rate can overwhelm Israel. That argument was always suspect to me anyway, because even if they did have a high population growth, it would not necessarily mean they could overwhelm Israel. If high population was that important China and India would rule the world.