More than 100 Palestinian families have fled Syria due to the deterioration in safety and security resulting from the uprising against President Bashar Assad, an official said Tuesday.Which means that the PA, which still runs the embassy in Cairo, is allowing known terrorists to freely enter Gaza.
Hamza Abu Shanab of the Gaza-based Palestinian Coalition for the Syrian Revolution told Ma'an that 105 families originally from the Gaza Strip have returned safely through Egypt's Rafah crossing in recent days.
Meanwhile Palestinian resistance leaders and fighters living in Syria have arrived in Gaza. One of them, he said, is Nidal Abu Kamil who was deported 20 years earlier.
Islamic Jihad’s Ibrahim Shehada has also returned.
The Palestinian embassy in Cairo was liaising with Egyptian authorities to allow the Palestinians into Egypt after they left Syria without applying for visas due to the unstable situation.
The Palestinians were not registered as refugees in Syria, but rather Gaza residents living there.
Also, isn't it interesting that the PA and Cairo are allowing Gazans who lived in Syria to return, but tens of thousands of Gazans who fled to Jordan in 1967 are still stuck in refugee camps there, without even Jordanian citizenship? There is nothing stopping them from "returning" to "Palestine," yet none are going.
Meanwhile, other terrorists are fleeing to equally friendly territory:
The leadership of the Palestinian branch of Islamic Jihad has relocated from Syria to Iran due to the growing unrest in the country, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday.
According to Palestinian sources quoted by the paper, Ramadan Shallah, the Islamic Jihad's leader, is now based in Iran, and his deputy had also relocated to the Islamic Republic several weeks ago.
The sources noted that the move did not bare any consequences on the terrorist groups' relations with the Syrian regime and President Bashar Assad.
However, an Islamic Jihad source in Gaza Strip denied the report, Israel's Army Radio reported on Saturday. "The movement cannot abandon its Syrian brothers at hard times like these," the source said, adding that the Islamic Jihad is providing aid to Palestinian refugees who are living in Syria.
"The departure from Syria of some of Jihad's leadership is a part of overseas activities and is not final," he noted.
(h/t Yoel)