CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday that he authorised the crossing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into Egypt to stock up on goods as long as they were not armed.
"I told (security forces) to allow them to buy their basic needs and go back to Gaza as long as they are not carrying arms or anything illegal," he told reporters in Cairo.
Tens of thousands of Gazans poured into Egypt on Wednesday after militants set off at least 15 explosions and blew holes in the border with the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
The veteran leader said he took the move to relieve Palestinians of the months-long Israeli blockade of the impoverished strip, which became a full-scale lockdown six days ago.
Palestinians are "hungry because of the Israeli blockade and the Egyptian security forces escorted them to buy their goods and then they went back to the Gaza Strip," Mubarak said.
He said that in order to resolve the problems in Gaza, Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas group must resolve their differences.
"There must be an agreement between the Palestinians. They must listen to each other. It should not be that each party unilaterally controls a part" of the Palestinian territories, he said.
"The continued differences between them is what any enemy would hope for," he said at the opening of the Cairo International Book Fair.
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