According to Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (AGI), almost 700,000 Palestinians have taken advantage of the demolished fence on the Rafah Crossing and flowed into Egypt.

UNRWA, the UN agency that assists the Palestinian refugees, has estimated that 400,000 have crossed the border on Wednesday and 300,000 this morning, while tens of street traders are selling falafel and sweets, welcoming the crowd in the Egyptian part of the city of Rafah.

After suffering months of poverty and violence, Gazans are stocking up and reuniting as Egyptian guards creak into motion almost forty-eight hours after the first surge.

With so many Palestinians in Rafah, residents are quipping that it is now annexed to the Gaza Strip as the refugees “swarm like locusts” over the markets and stalls.

The response of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been restrained:

We are doing our best to help end the Palestinians’ suffering, to help end the Israeli measures of mass punishment and to return fuel, electricity supplies and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

While Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki concluded that the border would be closed again once all the Palestinians had returned.

Nevertheless, amidst the melee there are tales of joy as families and marriages are brokered after many years of absence, as in the case of Omran Lubbab and his fiance Heba al-Qadi:

While other Palestinians lugged food and fuel from Egypt into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Omran Lubbab took advantage of the fall of Gaza’s Rafah wall to bring his future bride home.

“No more delays,” said Lubbab, a 34-year-old Gaza cameraman, vowing to marry fiance Heba al-Qadi in two weeks’ time.

Lubbab was reunited with Qadi, a Palestinian who lives on the Egyptian side of the divided town of Rafah, after stepping through one of the gaps Hamas fighters blew in the border wall dividing the town.

“We have been engaged for two years but our wedding has been delayed because of the closure of the border crossing,” said Qadi, who carried two suitcases filled with new dresses into the Gaza Strip to begin her new life.

Qadi will be staying with relatives in Gaza until the wedding.

Her mother, Buthaina al-Qadi, was all smiles as she watched the couple chatting about their wedding reception.

“I am very happy. My daughter is finally going to start a new life and a family,” she said.

[Via: Reuters]