The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Rafah

Egyptian universities remain closed to Palestinian students from the Israeli- blockaded Gaza Strip no matter how many holes have been punched in the Gaza-Egypt border. Tamara, 18, rushed across the open border to resume her studies on Thursday after hearing the news that Palestinian militants had forcibly opened the frontier t but to no avail. "Your situation is illegal," said the university authorities in El-Arish, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the divided border town of Rafah.

She joined the university in September after passing her school finals. "But the university said I needed a stamp in my passport, something that's impossible since there's no border post here any more," she explained.

The angry young woman was walking down Salaheddin Street on the Egyptian side of Rafah, flooded with fellow Gazans and their vehicles.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been allowed to pour into Egypt since Wednesday to stock up on goods which have been denied them by a week-long Israeli blockade aimed at halting cross-border rocket fire on Israel.

But even with Cairo's acquiescence, after initial reluctance, their status inside Egypt is illegal. In the absence of any functioning customs post, a few members of the Egyptian security forces and armed militants of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been left to direct traffic on the roads.