Though the public celebrations in Egypt for today’s ouster of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak were surely the biggest, but similar jubilation broke out in the Gaza Strip, where locals hope the end of the Mubarak regime means an end to their isolation from the rest of the world.
Fireworks were reported as celebrants took to the streets of Gaza, and Hamas security forces fired celebratory bursts of gunfire in the air as officials cheered “the great Egyptian people and their revolution.”
The hopes were clear, and Hamas officials publicly called on Egypt’s new leadership, which for now is the military, to permanent open its border with the tiny enclave and allow free movement and transport of goods with the neighboring Sinai Peninsula.
Mubarak’s government had eagerly supported Israel’s full scale blockade of the strip, complying with demands to keep all but the bare minimum of humanitarian goods away from the strip’s 1+ million residents.
It is unclear what the military will do, but there seems to be considerable support amongst Egyptians for lifting the blockade, as well as ending a number of the travel restrictions in the Sinai Peninsula which are products of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Though it is unlikely to end in a war between Egypt and Israel, it seems the treaty will be under increasing pressure for revisions in days to come.
One can only hope that the border will open and Gazan's will be able to escape their prison. My only fear is that Israel is dying for an excuse to re-occupy The Sinai and this would be one. This whole episode could very easily have been manufactured by the US and Israel to enable Israel to expand further and get its hands on vital water supplies.
The Egyption people should do a Berlin Wall here : take axes to the barriers and embrace the Palestinians .