Monday, February 04, 2008

Egyptians Block Journalists at Rafiah

Hana Levi Julian

A photographer and a reporter from the French AFP news agency were stopped at the Egypt-Gaza border by Egyptian security forces Sunday, according to AFP. The journalists were detained for two and a half hours in the border town of Rafiah and told when they were released they were no longer allowed to work in the area “because of national security.”

Plainclothes police officers confiscated the photographers' memory cards and erased them upon arresting the journalists, saying photography at the border was banned. The officers refused to identify themselves.

Both journalists were fully credentialed with the Cairo press office and had been working in the Rafiah area for the past week. A state-run Egyptian television crew was filming the border area with no interference from security personnel, said an AFP reporter.

The incident took place shortly after an AFP team filed a report describing the closure of the Gaza-Egypt border by Egyptian and Hamas forces. According to the report, forces placed metal barriers and barbed wires across all gaps in the border at Rafiah, re-sealing Gaza.

“No more Palestinians are being allowed in,” an Egyptian security source told AFP. According to the report, Hamas terrorists yelled, “Everyone needs to leave immediately! If you’re not Egyptian, you’ve got to leave now!” as they dispersed the crowd.

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