Egypt arrests 17 Palestinians fleeing Gaza war
Palestinians reportedly entered North Sinai through cross-border tunnels with plans to travel to Alexandria and then Europe
Ahram Online , Sunday 17 Aug 2014

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/108641/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-arrests--Palestinians-fleeing-Gaza-war.aspx

Egyptian authorities said on Sunday that 17 Palestinians have been arrested while trying to illegally enter the country in attempts to flee ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip, state-run news agency MENA reported.


The Palestinians were arrested after they illegally reached the North Sinai border town of Al-Arish via underground tunnels with Gaza. They were headed to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria from where they intended to illegally cross to Europe, MENA said.

The densely-populated Palestinian territory has been devastated by a more than month-long assault by Israeli forces that has killed almost 2,000 Palestinians.


The United Nations said 425,000 of the strip's 1.8 million people have been displaced by the war.


Approximately 5 million Palestinian refugees live in UN-run camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank after they or their families fled or were displaced during the 1948 war that saw Israel's founding.