Egypt-Gaza Clashes

Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Egyptian security forces along the Gaza border Wednesday over the delay of an expected aid convoy, leaving dozens of Palestinians wounded and one Egyptian soldier dead, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said.
The convoy, spearheaded by British Parliamentarian George Galloway, had been delayed in the Egyptian port city of Al-Arish Tuesday after being refused entry at another Egyptian port.
The Hamas-organized rally began peacefully but degenerated into violence with hundreds of Palestinians throwing rocks across the border wall.
Sounds of gunfire could be heard from video shot at the scene, but the source of the gunfire was unclear.
An official with the Egyptian Ministry of Health told CNN a 21-year-old soldier had been shot twice in the back and died of his wounds. Egyptian State television reported that the gunfire was believed to have come from Palestinians on the Gaza side of the border.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza, Salah Bardaweel, told CNN that 35 Palestinians were injured in the clashes. Ten of the injured suffered gunshot wounds and two of the victims were in critical condition, Bardaweel said.
By Wednesday evening, Egypt began to allow some vehicles from the "Viva Palestina" aid convoy into Gaza, convoy organizers said. It was not immediately clear how many vehicles would be permitted to cross the border.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told CNN that the problems began when the convoy organizers claimed that 43 sedan cars needed to be allowed into Gaza with the humanitarian aid convoy.
"We didn't block any trucks, what we blocked were 43 sedan cars that came about in this convoy as part of an aid delivery," Zaki said. "We didn't think there was room for sedan cars in a humanitarian convoy."
Bardaweel told CNN he hoped the incident "will not affect the Egyptian-Palestinian relationship," and he expressed surprise at Egypt's delay of the aid convoy.
"There is no need for the use of violence against the people who were welcoming this convoy, and we hope things will return to normal very soon," he said.
The Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007. Since then, the coastal strip of 1.5 million people has been subject to a punishing economic embargo by Israel, which has greatly limited goods coming in and out and increased poverty in the war-torn territory.

Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.