Rafah crossing reopens as PA police end standoff

[Behind the Aegis]

The Gaza Strip's border with Egypt reopened on Friday after the Palestinian Authority negotiated an end to an armed blockade by policemen angered at the death of a colleague in a clan clash, officials said.

A spokesman for European Union security monitors at the main border crossing of Rafah said operations would resume at 3:15 P.M. local time. The monitors had been temporarily withdrawn shortly after the standoff began on Friday morning.

In another sign of the increasing anarchy in the Strip, a 14-year-old Palestinian youth was killed Friday after gunmen stormed a police station where relatives of the armed Palestinians were held, according to Israel Radio.

With Friday's border takeover, along with this week's kidnapping of a British aid worker and her parents, the chaos appears to be spreading to outsiders brought in to help develop the area in the wake of the Israeli pullout.

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[Wordie]

1. British hostages freed in Gaza

British hostages freed in Gaza

Staff and agencies
Friday December 30, 2005

A British family kidnapped at gunpoint in Gaza have been released, British and Palestinian officials said tonight.

Aid worker Kate Burton, 24, and her parents Hugh, 73, and Helen, 55, have been freed two days after gunmen abducted the family near the Palestinian border with Egypt, according to Palestinian mediator Kamal Sharafi.

A British diplomat told the Associated Press that the family was safe and with Palestinian security personnel in Gaza City.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1675687,00.html