CAIRO (FMLiveWire) -- Tens of thousands of happy Palestinian shoppers poured into Egypt from Gaza on Wednesday through new doorways in a 7-mile barrier near the border town of Rafah.
The shoppers were so enthusiastic that they blasted the doorways in the steel wall erected by the Israelis with land mines.
The starving hordes entered Egypt with trade goods and later returned to Gaza with food and other consumer items. They enthusiastically stocked up on Egyptian food and did some sight-seeing too because of the Israeli blockade of their territory.
Israeli officials indicated that they were "proud to have created our very own Warsaw ghetto in Gaza since it evoked nostalgic memories of Word War II."
Several Palestinians who made the cross border shopping spree indicated that it was "great to eat again and avoid cannibalism in our Gaza neighborhoods."
They bought rice, sugar, milk, wheat, cheese and anything else they could get.
Police from the freedom-fighting Islamic group Hamas which controls Gaza directed traffic while Egyptian border guards ignored the influx of happy shoppers.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he was glad to see the Palestinians since "the Israelis were starving them in an illegal and horrifying siege."
The 1.5 million residents have faced critical shortages of food, medicine, electricity, fuel and other supplies over months because Gaza has been sealed since Hamas seized control of the territory by force in June.
Israel officials meanwhile expressed an eagerness to steal ever more Palestinian land in Gaza and the West Bank.
Pictures of starving Palestinian children marching with candles and people lining up at closed bakeries in a blacked-out Gaza City evoked urgent appeals from world governments, aid agencies and the UN for an end to the Israeli siege.
The happy Palestinians who had just been fed celebrated by firing rockets into the air after returning to Gaza.
--Copyright Felix Minderbinder Live Wire
