A third Palestinian pilgrim dies while stranded at Egyptian borders

A third Palestinian pilgrim dies while stranded at Egyptian borders

A third Palestinian woman out of the hundreds of Palestinian pilgrims being blocked from returning to the Gaza Strip died on Wednesday of worsening health condition and lack of appropriate treatment.


Palestinian sources in the Egyptian city of Arish, where more than 2,200 Palestinian pilgrims are held in temporary shelters, said that Mariam Odwan, 65, from Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, had died due to medical neglect.


Two other women of those pilgrims had died: Shafika Al-Buhaisi, 61, and Khadra Massoud, 69, of the same causes.


A fourth pilgrim Khaledia Hamdan, 40, died in IOF shooting while four others were wounded while entering Gaza through Beit Hanun (Erez) crossing a couple of days ago.


The League of Palestine Scholars in Gaza called on the Egyptian religious scholars to pass an edict on the issue of blocking those pilgrims from returning to their homes in Gaza.


Chairman of the League, Marwan Abu Ras, on Tuesday asked the Sheikh of Azhar and all Azhar scholars to say their word on this issue.


For his part Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, held the Cairo government fully responsible for the safety of those pilgrims.


He said that the Egyptian authorities should guarantee the safe return of those pilgrims to their homeland via the Rafah crossing.


Akef, in a statement on Tuesday to Al-Jazeera TV network, said that Egypt, which allowed those pilgrims out of Gaza through Rafah terminal, should ensure their return through the same terminal.


He charged that any other solution would mean an Egyptian submission to “Israeli dictates”.