Around 2,300 Palestinian pilgrims were stranded at the Nuwaibe Egyptian port Saturday pending Egyptian authorities' approval of their return to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing, security sources said.But so far, the authorities have refused to allow the pilgrims return home from Mecca and urged them to pass through the Israeli- controlled Karem Abu-Salem border point instead.
Many of the pilgrims, including members of the Islamist Hamas movement, said they feared being arrested. Some of them are already on Israeli "Wanted lists."
Official sources from Arish, the capital of North Sinai, 380 kilometres north-east of Cairo, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the pilgrims were offered temporary lodging in special camps until their plight has been resolved.
But they have refused and insist on waiting in the port until they are allowed to return home via the same crossing point they used to travel to Saudi Arabia for their haj rituals.
Sources from Nuwaibe port told dpa that the pilgrims also denied reports that they had signed a binding agreement to pass through Karem Abu-Salem before leaving the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba to Egypt.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Yusef, a Hamas negotiator, told Saturday's al- Masri al-Yom newspaper that "Egypt gave promises to resolve the situation," and that "the ball is in its court now."
Yusef added: "If the matter remains unresolved, the consequences will be dire in the Palestinian streets. Also, hundreds of thousands of the pilgrims' families might flood towards the Rafah crossing in protest."
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