Fishing boat brings fugitive Palestinians to Egypt

EL ARISH, Egypt, June 15 (Reuters) Ninety-seven Palestinians, most of them Fatah fighters fleeing the advance of their Hamas rivals, sailed into the Egyptian port of El Arish today aboard a fishing boat, Egyptian police said.

The boat contained members of the Preventive Security force, the civilian police force, the border guard, the Fatah-run intelligence service and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is also affiliated with Fatah. Thirteen had been wounded in the fighting.

They arrived in El Arish, about 50 km southwest of the Gaza border, around dawn, bringing 57 automatic rifles and 20 RPG launchers. Egyptian police handed the men to the armed forces, who took them to a military base.

Overnight about 20 Palestinian civilians also managed to enter Egypt through the main Rafah crossing point, which has been officially closed all this week because of the fighting in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas forces.

99 Palestinian border guards entered Egypt at the same point yesterday evening, abandoning their positions in Gaza.

Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip yesterday and has not recognised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's decree removing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh from the premiership.

The closure of the Rafah crossing point has left some 3,000 Palestinian travellers stranded in the El Arish area, most of them anxious to go home and make contact with their families.

The Egyptian authorities are not allowing them close to the border until it reopens for fear that Palestinian gunmen from Gaza might make holes in the border wall and let people in or out without restrictions, as they did in July last year.

Palestinian traveller Mahmoud Ali Ahmed, 50, said he had been watching events on television in El Arish while waiting for the border to open.

''I can see how bad things are there but staying here will be worse, without money, family or even friends,'' he said.

''We're used to bullets and shells,'' said Wael Mustafa el-Sayed, 27, who is on his way home after three years working in the Gulf. ''We had all that at the time of the confrontations with the Israelis before they left Gaza.'' REUTERS SLD KP1540