More than 1,000 Palestinian pilgrims were trapped yesterday in a three-way battle between Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli authorities over their right to return to the Gaza Strip.

The pilgrims were placed in temporary camps in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula after they were stranded for more than 40 hours on ferries upon their return from the haj in Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian Government insists that the pilgrims enter Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Aouja, also called Kerem Shalom, rather than the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing. But some of the pilgrims are members of Hamas, the radical Islamic group, which seized the Gaza Strip in June, and they fear that Israel will arrest them if they return through Aouja.

Israeli officials claim that some of the pilgrims are smuggling cash to Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip. Intelligence officers said that Hamas had taken advantage of Egyptian leniency at the Rafah border crossing to smuggle weapons and intelligence data into the Gaza Strip.

Blockade drains life from Gaza

The movement of goods into Gaza had been intermittent at best since Hamas won Palestinian elections early last year

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When Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, visited Egypt last week he received assurances from President Mubarak that Egypt would make a more concerted effort to stem smuggling. Hamas has attacked Egypt for cooperating with Israel and encouraged the stranded pilgrims to act as a group and to resist the “bullying” by the two governments.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said: “Hamas will not accept these pilgrims being subjected to an interrogation by the Israelis.” Mr Mubarak said yesterday that he was doing everything he could to resolve the problem. “We have allowed the pilgrims to cross because we are a Muslim country, but now we face a very critical situation because it is being said that they [the pilgrims] could carry prohibited things [into Gaza],” he said.

The President said the problem with Rafah was that the European Union no longer had representatives there to monitor border crossings. During the Hamas takeover, the European monitors fled and Hamas militiamen took control of the terminal.

Alaa Khodari said that her parents were among the 1,166 pilgrims stranded in the northern Sinai. “We have been worried sick about them because the conditions for them, on the ferry and after, have been terrible,” she said.

Ms Khodari said that her parents had made the pilgrimage many times but “never expected anything like this”. “The Egyptians are Muslims and these pilgrims are on a religious journey. We would expect such behaviour from the occupation but not from our Muslim brothers,” she said.

About 7,000 demonstrators gathered at the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing over the weekend, waving Palestinian and Hamas flags and demanding that the pilgrims be allowed to enter.

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, called on the Egyptian authorities “to exercise their historical duty” to the Palestinians and let them return to Gaza using the Rafah crossing.

At least one Palestinian was reported killed and four others wounded when another group of pilgrims entered Gaza from the Israeli side of the border last night. Palestinian doctors said that the pilgrims had come under Israeli fire at the Erez border crossing, but the Israeli army said it was unaware of any shooting.

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