VZCZCXRO3483
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #0148 0290631
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 290631Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7994
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS CAIRO 000148 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPAL EG IS
SUBJECT:  GAZA BORDER UPDATE JANUARY 29 
 
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El Arish 
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¶1. Econoff and FSN traveled to North Sinai governorate January 28. 
In El Arish, the capital of North Sinai governorate, they saw a 
group of about 50 Palestinians camping outside the Ministry of 
Interior office.  One Palestinian said he was waiting for permission 
to travel outside Sinai for medical treatment.  Others said they had 
work visas in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Gulf, but couldn't 
get permission to transit Egypt to return to their jobs.  One 
Palestinian man from Gaza said he crossed over for medicine and 
medical treatment for Israeli bullet wounds from 2001. One 
Palestinian was waiting at a gas station with his children and empty 
fuel cans, waiting for a fuel truck so he could fill the cans for 
resale in Gaza. 
 
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Sheikh Zuweid 
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¶2.  Econoff and FSN also traveled relatively easily to the town of 
Sheikh Zuweid, about ten kilometers from the Rafah border crossing. 
They noticed some tension with Egyptian police chasing a Palestinian 
with a stick, and another policeman confronting an unruly group of 
Palestinian men.  During a brief meeting, loan officers at the North 
Sinai Businessmen's Association branch in Sheikh Zuweid said that 
they had faced no significant problems.  However, they noted that 
local Egyptians are having trouble with the high prices, spiked by 
the Palestinian influx, as well as fewer supplies due to the Gazan 
shopping spree.  Nonetheless, the Egyptian merchants admitted that 
"business is good." 
 
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Gazans Glad, Egyptians Less So 
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¶3.  Overall, the Palestinians seemed happy, Egyptian El Arish 
residents less so, as they fret about high prices and empty shelves. 
One reported that in the hours after the border was breached, a 5 
piaster (one U.S. cent) piece of coarse "baladi" bread was selling 
for 5 (one U.S. dollar) pounds, a 100-fold increase. An El Arish 
trader in a local cafe said he had bought a warehouse full of bags 
of cement, shisha tobacco, fuel oil and other commodities but now 
could not get it across the border. He's negotiating with the 
Ministry of Interior for permission. 
 
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Counterfeit USD 100 Bill 
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¶4.  Econoff and FSN observed indications of serious currency 
trading, from an older Egyptian walking down the road flashing a wad 
of cash as an advertisement to a young man in a cafe haggling in his 
mobile for a good rate to sell 30,000 Israeli shekels. The old 
currency trader said a Palestinian had passed him a counterfeit 100 
USD bill. 
 
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Easy Riders East 
---------------- 
 
¶5.  The hot commodity appears to be motorcycles. Econoff passed five 
pickup trucks at different times carrying new motorcycles eastward, 
including one pickup overturned in a ditch that had been rushing to 
Gaza with the goods, as well as two young men driving their new 
motorbikes east to the border.  Overall, the situation in and around 
El Arish appears fairly calm, with police in control. 
 
RICCIARDONE